 On December 4, 2012, NATO authorized the deployment of Patriot missile launchers in Turkey to protect the country from missiles fired in the civil war in neighboring Syria.Patriot was one of the first tactical systems in the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) to employ lethal autonomy in combat.The Patriot system gained notoriety during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 with the claimed engagement of over 40 Iraqi Scud missiles, but those claims became a source of controversy.