Hypersonic missiles can defeat the system. We are sending only one Patriot battery.
The Russians used hypersonic missiles once or twice in March. Nothing since then, have they run out of prototypes?
We’re going to slow-walk the Patriot delivery, really drag it out.
Aside from triggering a missile exchange that takes out the American crew in Ukraine, (there is not time to train a Ukrainian crew), the big worry at the Pentagon is that the Patriot, designed 40 years ago, will be shown to be obsolete and ineffective against Russian hyper-velocity missiles.
If the Patriot battery is taken out, the soap bubble of American technical superiority will pop all around the world.
During Desert Storm, multiple Patriots would be fired at single incoming SCUDs, old inertially guided ballistic missiles, and some still got past them.
Even with software improvements, it’s still a Patriot missile with a very limited engagement range.
One Scud vs multiple Patriots was not a sure stop.
A salvo of time-on-target Russian missiles from slow low drones to hypersonics is going to be very tough for the single Patriot battery, including an American crew, which cannot be camouflaged or concealed.
I predict it’s going to take a VERY long time to get that battery to Ukraine. As it is, we’re going around the world begging for Patriot missiles from old clients just to provide them to Ukraine. We don’t have enough in stockpiles.
Hypersonic or not, all long range missiles need targeting information. They are only good for fixed targets at known, pre-programmed locations, at least for ground targets. Targets at sea, ships, can be tracked by radar.
Which is why mobile ground equipment is tough to hit that way. Just moving a kilometer or so a few times a day should be enough put targeting data perpetually off.