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Luckschaden -> Can the Saudi operated Patriot batteries intercept the Houthi Scud missiles? (12/28/2017 11:35:06 PM)
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The nytimes posted an interesting article about this a few weeks ago:
Titled: Did American Missile
Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? (I am not allowed to post links yet).
They looked at social media videos and pictures to analyse what happened.
They conclude that images of crashed parts show that only the rocket body but not the warhead crashed, and even the body seems intact. The missile that the Houthis likely used is designed to have the body separate from the warhead before impact.
The Saudis launched 5 interceptors.
The warhead impacted close to the airport, very close, given the distance the missile traveled and how accurate it usually is.
This means that in all likelyhood, all 5 interceptors either missed completely, or hit the rocket body but in any case they did not stop the warhead from reaching its target.
Later, the US presented the missile to the public (as alleged evidence of Irans involvment), and it was virtually undamaged, further corroborating the NYTimes report.
I thought that the Patriot system was state of the art and highly esteemed, and that the Saudis operated one of the most advanced versions and given their rivalry with Iran certainly trained to intercept SCUD missiles. So how surprising and concerning are these findings? Has this been reported on in more specialised publications?
(I tried recreating this in COMMAND, but the Patriot is unable to engage the missile because it travels too fast.)
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