One of the head designers of the Patriot missile has died in Florida. He was 91. The son of Zdzislaw Starostecki (z-GEE'-slav Star-o-STE'-key) said his father died in Sarasota on December 31. Andrew Starostecki says his father fought for his native country of Poland during World War II and moved to the United States in 1952.
After earning an engineering degree in 1960, Starostecki went to work for the US Army as a weapons designer in New Jersey. In the early 1980s, Starostecki led a group designing the radar and warheads for the Patriot missile system. The surface-to-air missiles were first used during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The system has since been sold to American allies around the world. Poland's president and parliament granted Starostecki the honorary rank of general in December 2009.
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