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World News See other World News Articles Title: US-Made Missile Defenses Spectacularly Failed in Saudi Arabia "It's nothing but an unbroken trail of disasters with this weapon system." "It's nothing but an unbroken trail of disasters with this weapon system," Theodore Postol, an MIT physicist and prominent critic of US missile defenses, told me. Rebel forces from the Houthi group, which has taken over much of Yemen in recent years, fired at least seven rockets at Saudi Arabia on the night of March 25. Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of Middle East countries battling the Houthis in Yemen. The Saudi military launched Patriot Advanced Capability-2 missiles in an attempt to destroy the Houthi rockets in mid-air. The Saudis claimed seven of the Patriots struck their targets. One man reportedly died after being struck by metal fragments. It's unclear whether the fragments came from a malfunctioning Patriot, a successful intercept or a Houthi rockets striking the ground. Amateur videos that appeared online in the aftermath of the missile skirmish indicate that many of the Patriots—which are manufactured by US firm Raytheon— exploded in mid-air or veered off course. The same thing happened during the 1991 Gulf War, said Postol, a former Pentagon science advisor. "It seems in 25 years they haven't fixed it." The Patriot flies a straight trajectory for the first four seconds after launch, during which time the missile accelerates past the sound barrier. The missile has a habit of malfunctioning during those initial seconds in the air. Of the apparent five separate Patriot launches that appear in videos from Riydah, two seem to have ended in premature explosions during the acceleration phase, Postol pointed out. After four seconds in the air, a Patriot begins maneuvering and searching for a signal from the ground-based radar that helps to guide it. Three of the Saudi Patriots appear to have malfunctioned during this phase of flight. "They suddenly went downward and exploded," Postol said. The failures over Saudi Arabia last weekend could point to a design flaw that critics such as Postol have been trying for decades to fix. "In the Gulf War of 1991, we definitely saw Patriots take off, turn around and dive to ground in both Saudi Arabia and in Israel," Postol told me. "When we reported what we saw in videos from Israel, Raytheon claimed this only occured in Israel because the Israelis didn't know what they were doing. Then we uncovered videos of the missiles doing the same thing in Saudi Arabia." Raytheon did not respond to a request for comment. In 2018, the US Defense Department set aside $1.1 billion to buy 240 Patriot missiles. Patriots continued to malfunction in 2003. US Army Patriot crews mistakenly shot down a US Navy F/A-18 fighter and a British Royal Air Force Tornado bomber, killing the American pilot and both British crew members. Coalition aircrews grew to fear their own air-defenses. “The Patriots scared the Hell out of us,” one F-16 pilot remarked. Another F-16 pilot actually fired a missile at a US Patriot system after the Patriot crew locked onto the F-16 with its radar. As recently as 2010, the US Missile Defense Agency claimed it had improved the Patriot. "Over the past decade the United States has made significant progress in developing and fielding essential capabilities for protection against attack from short- and medium-range ballistic missiles," the agency reported. "These capabilities include increasingly capable Patriot batteries." The Missile Defense Agency did not respond to a request for comment. Multiple failures on the part of Saudi Arabia's Patriots could indicate that, in fact, the air-defense system hasn't gotten much better since its inauspicious 1991 debut and subsequent friendly-fire incidents in 2003. That could jeopardize the safety of US and allied forces in a future conflict. Postol said he's especially worried about South Korea, where US and South Korean troops count on Patriots to defend against North Korea's huge arsenals of ballistic missiles. "In South Korea there could be a real problem if these systems don't work as expected," Postol told me. "I frankly don't think they will work." Poster Comment: The Iranians bought the Chinese HQ 9 anti-missile system. It was built using technology from the Russian S-300 and the Israeli souped up version of the Patriot. The Iranians had been building their own S-300 when they got the S-400 plans from Russia. The Iranians are building their own version of the S-400. They have acquired MACH 14 and Mach 13 missiles from Russia which they are mass producing. American cannot go to war against Iran for Israel. We would lose. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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