British warplane shot down by US

Zamtuk · Post by **Zamtuk** » March 23, 2003, 1:13 pm

/sigh

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/ ... index.html

Kilmoll the Sexy · Post by **Kilmoll the Sexy** » March 24, 2003, 10:36 pm

Shot down by Patriot missile, but not necessarily by the U.S. We gave Kuwait that missile system as well as a few others in that region.

Forthe · Post by **Forthe** » March 24, 2003, 10:41 pm

Oh the patriot. Once again the media is reporting how effective it is. Just like the first war where it was reporting a 90%+ interception rate even tho it intercepted a grand total of *0* scuds.

noel · Post by **noel** » March 24, 2003, 10:43 pm

Forthe wrote:Oh the patriot. Once again the media is reporting how effective it is. Just like the first war where it was reporting a 90%+ interception rate even tho it intercepted a grand total of *0* scuds.

It's certainly not possible that the technology behind the Patriot has advanced in the last 12 years.

Forthe · Post by **Forthe** » March 24, 2003, 10:59 pm

Aranuil wrote:
Forthe wrote:Oh the patriot. Once again the media is reporting how effective it is. Just like the first war where it was reporting a 90%+ interception rate even tho it intercepted a grand total of *0* scuds.
It's certainly not possible that the technology behind the Patriot has advanced in the last 12 years.

It certainly is possible and I should hope so. But the wild claims of success when it never worked *at all* in the first gulf war make me highly skeptical.

Edit: It still is the best anti-air defense system (its initial design function) in the world which was (unfortunately) demostrated here.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » March 24, 2003, 11:04 pm

It is a good example of how numbers are inflated and twisted though Aranuil. I remember during the first war how they bragged about the Patriot, when it showed very clearly later it was BS. Another number that got twisted extremely was the amount of precision bombs (laser guided etc) that were used during the first war. If the numbers are twisted in a similar amount now it scares me.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » March 24, 2003, 11:15 pm

Keep in mind that Patriot was designed in the 70s as a traditional SAM to be used as an anti-aircraft weapon. It preformed so well in this role that in the early 1980s it was thought that the system has a chance against ballistic missiles such as the SS-21. Experimentation lead to an "off-the-shelf" system successfuly intercepting a Lance missile in the mid 80s, and some further refinement led to the PAC-2 generation that eventually saw service in the 91 gulf war. It was deployed as a missile defence because it was about the only thing that had a reasonable chance, not an end-all solution. This entier saga was lost at the time and it was touted as being an anti-missile missle rather than the backfit SAM that it really was.

What we are seeing now is improved PAC-2 versions and maybe some PAC-3 that have gone through a more proper design program based partly on the lessons of the Gulf War. This is missile is closer to what was the Patriot was understood to be in the 91 war, and possibly better.

As far as it's preformance goes, it's fantastic against aircraft, and it's anti-missile capability has been expanded greatly.

It's still technically very difficult to intercept a missile with anything unless you know exactly what it's aiming for.

Acies · Post by **Acies** » March 24, 2003, 11:16 pm

http://www.veeshanvault.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3163
/sigh
I hate to hear about things like this...