Where are the Patriots?
Friday I saw a news clip in which it was stated that the Patriot missiles were being deployed in Israel in order to protect against the Hezbollah missile attacks.
Ynetnews:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3276133,00.html
states that 3 batteries were set-up in the Haifa area on Saturday (8/05)
Are they effective against the type of missiles being used by Hezbollah?
I recall that they were only marginally effective in Gulf War I - I would assume lessons were learned from that and hope that the Patriot is now knocking the Hezbollah hardware out of the sky...a few perhaps??...maybe 1 now and then?...any at all?
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This is confusing. Patriot, in the Advanced PAC-3 version, has much improved over that which was used in 1991. It has very little, if any, capability against unguided artillery rockets such as the Katyusha or GRAD, as they are too small and have too low a trajectory for the Patriot to engage. They probably could engage the larger Fajr or Zelzal Iranian-developed rockets, originally unguided but now possibly with inertial guidance.
For the small rocket threat, there was joint US-Israelu development of the Tactical High-Energy Laser system, which has quite a few limitations. Also in joint development, and possible deployment, is the Arrow system, more intended for the SCUD-style large attack but able to engage smaller targets than is Patriot. The newer Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL)would be more usable against small rockets, but was scheduled to go operational in 2007.
Arrow batteries are supposed to be deployed, one to cover Tel Aviv. Arrow differs from Patriot in using an explosive warhead rather than the physical impact of Patriot PAC-3 or the US Navy SM-3. There are pros and cons of both approaches.
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Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
August 6, 2006 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink