Comment Patriot success rate was likely extremely inflated (Score 4, Informative) 626
I know that I'm arguing with a trolling AC, but for the other readers of slashdot, you should know that the grandparent's post refers to the controversy regarding the analysis of the Patriot system during the first Gulf war. There was a huge propaganda machine behind the Patriot's "successes" which turned out to be very near zero indeed. This was covered in a series of hearings in the early 90's...
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/docops/pl920908.htm
You can also read up on this from transcripts from the hearings after the war.
In the interests of fairness, here is a rebuttal / review.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/docops/zimmerman.htm
I remain unconvinced -- from reading this (almost 20 years ago) I concluded that at best, the military did not know for sure that these worked well.