The Army has 11 Patriot battalions today and is developing two more to be ready by early next fall. However, Lennox told Inside the Army Dec. 7 that U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Central Command have requested additional assets.

“In the last 18 months there have been three separate combatant commanders that have asked for Patriot in their” area of responsibility, the two-star told ITA here at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare annual space and missile defense symposium.

“Anybody who reads the papers and follows current events knows what is going on in North Korea and some of the discussions and things going on in Iran,” he explained.

With these requests in hand, Lennox briefed Army leaders last month on the “worldwide demands” for the air and missile defense system.

Lennox said he left the meeting with orders to examine how Army air defense is structured and decide if the service can support “demands worldwide.” Additionally, the two-star was given direction to explore whether the service could expand the Patriot force.

Since the briefing, Lennox has crafted several “white-board ideas,” or preliminary thoughts, on how the Patriot force could be grown, and he has prepared information on the cost of expanding the Patriot force to present to Army leaders later this month.

“I think we have some capability if the funding came and the people came,” Lennox told ITA. “I think we could expand the Patriot force; probably not tomorrow but within a couple of years because you have to recruit these soldiers, you have to train them and then you’ve got to get them into the force. So, it wouldn’t be immediate but it would be within a couple of years.”

Lennox declined to discuss his white-board ideas and the “expensive” associated costs before he briefed Army leaders.

However, he said if the service opted to expand the Patriot force, funds to support the growth would likely be contained in the next emergency supplemental appropriations request.

Patriot is a long-range, high-altitude system designed to defeat advanced threats, including aircraft and tactical ballistic missiles.