Patriot air defenses to be mothballed after decades of mostly gathering dust

Times of Israel ^ | 4/30/24 | Emanuel Fabian

[hardspunned]

The Israeli Air Force is set to bid farewell to its aging Patriot missile defense systems in the coming months, replacing the batteries with more advanced air defenses, the military said Tuesday.

In February, the IAF said it was in the process of closing several Patriot batteries, and its staff would be trained to operate the Iron Dome instead.

[hardspunned]

I thought these were essential in bringing down the “99%” of Iranian drones and missiles a couple of weeks ago. What more advanced system is protecting American assets around the world? Why mothballed? Isn’t Z begging for these Patriot systems? Why doesn’t the U.S. take them back or buy them back with some of the $26Billion we are giving to Israel and supply them to Ukraine?

[PeterPrinciple]

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2024/04/09/how-companies-plan-to-ramp-up-production-of-patriot-missiles/

production ramping up?

[The Antiyuppie]

I wonder if they have early generation systems, and they are not possible or financially feasible to upgrade.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The Patriots were a failure in the Iraq war against the Scuds.

I heard they had been upgraded, and the Ukrainians claimed to have some success with them before they got blasted by the Russians.

Oh well. It's impossible to know what's going on in the World. The more I try to find out, the more certain I am in the Matrix and reality is being created for us rather than related to us.

[PeterPrinciple]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome

Iron Dome (Hebrew: כִּפַּת בַּרְזֶל, romanized: Kippat Barzel) is an Israeli mobile all-weather air defense system,[8] developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.[7] The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 to 70 kilometres (2–43 mi) away and whose trajectory would take them to an Israeli populated area.[9][10] From 2011 to 2021, the United States contributed a total of US$1.6 billion to the Iron Dome defense system,[11] with another US$1 billion approved by the US Congress in 2022.[12][needs update]

Iron Dome was declared operational and initially deployed on 27 March 2011 near Beersheba.[13] On 7 April 2011, the system successfully intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza for the first time.[14] On 10 March 2012, The Jerusalem Post reported that the system shot down 90% of rockets launched from Gaza that would have landed in populated areas.[10] In late 2012, Israel said that it hoped to increase the range of Iron Dome’s interceptions, from a maximum of 70 to 250 kilometres (43–155 mi) and make it more versatile so that it could intercept rockets coming from two directions simultaneously.[15]

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modified for their particular needs?

[Delta 21]

Like our ICBM inventory. I dont really want to see it get a whole lotta use.

[Reverend Wright]

While the Army has yet to fund another missile production increase, Lockheed decided in the latter part of 2022 that it would continue to invest internally to be able to build 650 a year. “Lockheed could see the demand out there,” Davidson said, adding that the company plans to hit that number in 2027.

Production is "ramping up" alright.

650 missiles a year. That's almost two per day !

[rottweiller_inc]

I think there’s something they want to keep secret, like perhaps other countries have missiles that are stealth.

[rfp1234]

Send them to Zelvis, he can use them as decoys against Ruzzians [/sarc.]

[rfp1234]

[hardspunned]

“MIM-104 Patriot “Yahalom”, a high to medium air defense (HIMAD) medium tactical air defense platform capable of downing aircraft and ballistic missiles. Israel’s Patriot missile systems have been technologically upgraded since entering service.”

From all I can find, the Israeli version is the top of line. I certainly hope I’m missing something. The news of our incredibly over priced military just seems to get worse and worse. It absolutely floors me that in the middle of fending off everything NATO has, the Russians are set to spend $72Billion this year on defense! That’s less than one tenth the US expenditure.

[SaveFerris]

I watched that one

[hardspunned]

I could not agree more. It might be a good idea to stop involving ourselves in wars with technological equals or superiors all around the world.

[buwaya]

They have PAC-2, intended for anti ballistic missile work. Israel now has their own higher tech systems for this use case.

There likely are customers for this used system. All of North Koreas neighbors for instance, or Taiwan, facing Chinese IRBMs.

Ukraine’s problem is mainly cruise missiles, which, IIRC, requires different interceptors.

[ClearCase_guy]

I wonder if there is any possibility that this is really being caused by Biden saying, “No spare parts or support for you. You’re on your own.” That would make Patriots pretty useless in Israel and they would have to switch to a different system.

[glorgau]

Probably a “cover story” for more equipment being shipped off to Ukraine

[buwaya]

Which means that the “technological equals” will dominate the world. That will be an uncomfortable position for the US. “Fortress America” is unfeasible.

[hardspunned]

When the Russian hypersonic missiles arrive in Ukraine, I’ve read there’s less than a ten second heads up to our patriots. I am terrified of the specter of a barrage of these aimed at one of our carriers. I fear the Aegis protection might be catastrophically overrated as well.

[Reverend Wright]

The Anglosphere is protected by oceans.

Which increases our security, but allows our leaders to be more careless and reckless

[buwaya]

PPP(Purchasing Power Parity)

The US (and Europe) is expensive for everything. Mainly due to labor costs, plus regulatory overhead and mandates.