The airforce is working on a method to shoot down the missles in the boost phase http://www.airbornelaser.com/ which is basically a 747 equiped with a powerful laser and aiming systems. But you still have to have one of these in the area to prevent a missle take off.
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*Originally posted by Zagadka *
**That’s basically it. They trumped up the Patriots a lot, largely to reassure Israel… I don’t have cites either, but I had heard they only had one confirmed interception.
The version of Patriot missiles used in Desert Storm was aircraft intercept optimized. It’s use against Scuds was last ditch with approximately a 25% or less success rate of warhead destruction. Actually getting to where the Scud was about a 100% success but killing it was not easy. The Patriot might have an actual intercept - destroy the Scud structure but not detonate the Scud warhead. Main problems were:
Fuze action was too slow - Warhead/missile inbound was coming much faster than an aircraft. Fuze woul function in proximity but would have already passed the Scud which was moving faster than the rate of detonation of the Patriot warhead. Aft end of the Scud might get blown up but warhead would still be intact though unguided. Later version of fuzing is “quicker” anticipating the intercept. Same with intercept software.
Patriot warhead fragments were too small (limited penetration) to kill the warhead. Aircraft are very thin skinned and engines vulnerable to even small fragments. A Scud warhead would be relatively robust and there would be a heat shield for re-entry. Sufficient “armor” to stop Patriot fragments. Later version of Patriot warhead has different fragmentation to go with the quicker fuze. Latest Patriot has hit-to-kill ability.
Scuds broke up into multiple targets due to re-entry forces acting on the missile airframe presenting a confusing radar image. Some Scuds were modified for longer range with no real testing on the resulting missile. And these are not very high quality to begin with. The Patriot radar was excellent at “seeing” the target(s) but distinguishing a falling warhead from a broken up fuel tank was not part of the computer program. Software has been improved to make distinctions although this does reduce intercept altitude - you have to have some aerodynamic (atmospheric) forces on the targets to distinguish them.