[ianmf]

IIRC from my military time, the first generations of the patriot missiles (PAC-1, PAC-2) were designed to explode when in vicinity of the target. The PAC-3 missile was the first to introduce kinetic damage before the payload would explode.

[jandrewrogers]

This is correct. The Patriot was an anti-aircraft missile that was retrofitted to kinda sorta be adequate for ballistic missile intercept. It was a proverbial dancing bear -- it was impressive that it worked at all, never mind that it wasn't very good.