Re:Patriot missile -- really a "failure" (Score 1)

Finally someone who has a clue about the Patriot... The Patriot was not designed to shoot down missiles, it just became apparent that it was accuarate enough and capable of doing so, and was only intended to be used for self defense. First, I know factually what happened that day, because I was in Bravo Battery, 2-7 ADA in Dhahran. (look up the facts) I heard the scud hit the ground I was so close. Yes, the Patriot never fired because it was never intended to fire that far away. A scud comes down at over 4000!mph, so is quite difficult to hit from a distance. Do the math. Even though the Patriot is doing twice the speed of sound when it is launched, it just isn't possible to accelerate a 1750lb missile to cross paths with something at 4000mph. Regardless, the only reason anybody died was because of complacency over the knowledge the Patriot was protecting them. They should have taken cover like everyone else. They chose to stay in their beds out of stupidity. We used to have Air Force people in the airport control tower watching the scuds get shot down and then coming over to tell us how cool it was! I chose to stay underground and come home alive. The article linked has many false claims and cover ups. When I got out of the Army in '95 the Patriot had never missed a target, ever. The Patriot battery had not been running for 4 days, it had been running since August the year before! They were intended to run constantly to defend against a Russian onslaught, not for a day at a time. If the supposed clock drift excuse was true, (which is isn't, it uses GPS like everything else for positioning) there would have been hundreds of miles difference by that time. Many extra missiles were fired during the war, but not by mistake. Just because you hit a target it does not disintegrate. Where do you think the tons of steel go when the explosives in it detonate? Evaporate? It still has to fall to the ground. When the scuds exploded, the radar detected a fast moving object as a threat and launched again. Easily understandable by anyone who works on the system.