The Patriot - useless after all?

[Chen]

I'm beginning to wonder how much the Patriot will help us if it can't even intercept short-distance Frogs or Al-Samoud (according to latest reports only 1 of the 5 missles were intercepted).

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/breaking_news/story/68742p-63976c.html

[bigmattyh]

There is this.

[Chen]

There is this.

I would take that with several large grains of salt... I don't see why the Iraqis should reveal weapons that they're not supposed to have so early.

And even if that's true, nice job taking 1 of 3 down...

[bigmattyh]

It's early, the fog of war and all that, and we don't much know anything for sure at this point. Jury's out on this one for the time being.

[Bane]

I'm beginning to wonder how much the Patriot will help us if it can't even intercept short-distance Frogs or Al-Samoud (according to latest reports only 1 of the 5 missles were intercepted).

I was under the impression that it was 2. And further why would you intercept missles that hit the middle of the desert, nothing for miles and miles, we would do more damage than not trying to hit every missle that came over there has to be target selection no?

[Chen]

You would think the Americans will be happy to test their missles on targets in real time. It's not like you can't afford it.

[Wayne Luke]

In my opinion, the government is putting too much trust into the Patriot Anti-Aircraft system. It was never designed to target missiles which have much smaller tracks than other aircraft.

You would have though that in the last 12 years, they would have developed an actual anti-missile system instead of trying to upgrade an old and dubious system operating outside its design parameters.

However, they shot down two missiles out of four. They also shot down the two missiles that were targetted and fired upon. The question really is, did they target the other two missiles and decide not to fire or did they slip through completely?

[AWS]

The problem is the anti-missile missiles we have were developed to stop long range nukes and are satallite controlled. The Patriot is an anti-aircraft missile. In 1991 they modified the targetting software to target scuds and they worked prety good doing the job. No further development was done to improve them or to make something to target short range missiles. There was no reason to because no one thought we would be back in Iraq and the threat we still face is from longe range missiles. It is a given that thinking was the next major war would be one against a country that had and would use long range nukes.

Does anyone else see that Iraq was lying to the UN all these years and didn't comply with UN resolutions?
They said and still say they have no scuds or al-samouds yet they fired them at troops. If they lied about them don't you think it's a distinct possibility that they do in fact still have chemical weapons and maybe even nukes?

[Wayne Luke]

I was thinking about this last night and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't surprise me if Saddam nuked one of his own cities and tried to blame it on the coalition forces.

[vBR]

I was thinking about this last night and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't surprise me if Saddam nuked one of his own cities and tried to blame it on the coalition forces.

I was thinking it wouldn't surprise me if the U.S. engineered a chemical / biological attack on their own troops and blamed it on Sadam, or used similar methods on an Iraqi military installation and clamed it as an accident and proof that Sadam was developing such devices.

[NetherChris]

Yeah... if I remember correctly the Patriot never worked very well in the first place. I'm sure they have something up their sleeve, though.

[Wayne Luke]

I was thinking it wouldn't surprise me if the U.S. engineered a chemical / biological attack on their own troops and blamed it on Sadam, or used similar methods on an Iraqi military installation and clamed it as an accident and proof that Sadam was developing such devices.

That could be a possibility as well. I don't trust my government implicitly and pray that they wouldn't stoop to something so low.

However, we have mechanisms to remove a madman from office here in the US and ultimately it will be the people that speak.

[AWS]

It would be very hard for the U.S. or Iraq to pull that off. The eyes in the skies are watching 24/7 and if someone tried anything like that it would be seen. You could argue that the U.S. could easily doctor the video to make it look like Iraq did it, but, the U.S. isn't the only country with satelites watching what's going on. You can bet that Russia has their satelites looking down over the region for no other reason then to see what new technology the U.S. will use this time.

Russia is still a super power. They aren't on the level technology wise like they were during the cold war, but, are still a threat. It would stand to reason that they would be interested in the new U.S. advances in weapons technology and battle strategies. During Gulf War 1 the U.S. unveiled some things that put a scare into the sleeping giant. The F117 and laser guided bombs and missiles were 2 of those things. Now 12 years later that technology has only improved and I am sure other countries would like to see the changes.
I always felt and still feel that Russia is the biggest threat to the U.S

Did anyone see CNN last night when the retired Navy captain explained how the cruise missile works? Did you happen to catch him say that in 1981 the missile had an accuracy rate of only 10% and that now because of GPS and changes in the guideance system it is now 90% accurate and will hit within a couple meters of the target?

[CondorZ]

I was thinking it wouldn't surprise me if the U.S. engineered a chemical / biological attack on their own troops and blamed it on Sadam, or used similar methods on an Iraqi military installation and clamed it as an accident and proof that Sadam was developing such devices.

Turn on your TV. Our forces have media with them, reporting live from the field. Why would the our govt/military be allowing that if such "crap" were planned? This is beyond ludicrous.

Saddam is the liar here. I swear, some of you people wouldn't believe the truth under any circumstances. Our Patriots shot down Scuds that Suddam supposedly didn't possess. Or maybe you think that's a lie too????

Remember how many good American men and women died defeating Adolf Hitler. Did we stay and take over Europe? WHO defended European freedoms during the cold war? This anti-American sentiment is beyond belief.

[Raz Meister]

Please get your f'ing facts right. America did not liberate "Old Europe" on its own.

America ONLY joined the war when THEY were attacked (Pearl Harbour) - and the whole of Europe, Russia and countless others (plus the US) helped end WWII.

BTW, it was Russia who actually defeated Adolf Hitler and were the first country to take over Berlin.