• Tar_Alcaran
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    4 months ago

    We rolled out the Patriot when it was still in a prototype, half-baked stage in Iraq, too – just that it was all we had that might be able to intercept a ballistic missile, and we really needed the capability right then – and it didn’t fare well either.

    About 9% intercept ratio during Desert Storm, which was 30 years ago, but both the Patriot and the Al Hussain missiles were pretty much brand new. S400 is a decade and a half newer than ATACMS though.

    Patriot did (a lot?) better in Iraqi Freedom, but the exact numbers are all over the place.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      About 9% intercept ratio during Desert Storm, which was 30 years ago, but both the Patriot and the Al Hussain missiles were pretty much brand new.

      Regarding being brand new, what I mean is that the Patriot existed for an anti-aircraft role, but its anti-ballistic-missile capability wasn’t supposed to have been done by that point.

      • Tar_Alcaran
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        4 months ago

        It was pretty new though, it was in use for some 5 years when the Gulf War started.