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To: spetznaz
Is this artcile implying the Patriot was a heat-seeker?
28 posted on 09/26/2002 4:33:55 PM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: Gunrunner2; FreedomPoster
I do not think the article is saying the Patriot was a heat seeker (since the Patriot is not a heat seeker). What it is saying is the Scuds launched by Saddam tended to break up and the Patriot was 'confused' over which target it should engage and thus often failed to destroy the warhead. Or on other occasions the Patriot would indeed hit the entire missile only to make it break apart (and most often leave the warhead intact and tumbling to the ground).

Actually some ICBMs utilize decoys that pop out to deceive anti-ballistic missile defenses into sending their kill vehicles against the false warheads while the real one goes through. Saddam's Scuds (he had made some modifications to them to add range, but a side effect was they broke up easily) had a pseudo form of this decoy effect (although not on purpose) and the Patriots of the Gulf war could not overcome it. (Actually i do not know why i ma telling you this GunRunner since you obviously know more about the Patriot that i know ...but hey, it seems i love to write and write a lot LOL). Anyways.....

Which is why reports came out that the actual kill rate of those Patriots was 9%.

However todays Patriots are a different breed and are not so easily fooled.

As for your post Freedom Poster i would not say the whole article was BS. It is common knowledge that when a Patriot impacts it will not totally disintregate the whole Scud. Obviously some chunks will fall to the ground and if a chunk falls on your head or your house you will not be a very joyous chap! What the article is contending is that the Patriots, instead of destroying the warhead, usually just broke up the missile. Falling chunks of metal are one thing .....however falling chunks of metal plus a falling warhead is another thing. A falling piece of missile would only do localized damage (eg total your car). However an intact warhead will do a lot worse. That was the problem ...intact warheads.

As an aside i believe the kill vehicle of the proposed national defense missile program (by the way totally different in every respect from the Patriot) will have the capability to destroy the incoming warhead completely. Disintegrate it. However the kill vehicle uses pure kinetic energy instead of a HE warhead.

29 posted on 09/26/2002 7:01:36 PM PDT by spetznaz
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