Posted: Dec 21, 2022 9:06 pm
Agi Hammerthief wrote:Greg the Grouper wrote:Associated Press put out an article suggesting that the US has sent Ukraine a Patriot missile system. Could this be a largely defensive measure? Could Ukraine potentially use this to deflect future Russian barrages, or is the system not quite that accurate?
it’s mostly a question of numbers not accuracy
4 missiles per launcher - send 5 attack aircraft and at least one will get through.
Higher accuracy helps, longer range helps but ultimately it’s down to math.
Patriots are also eye-wateringly expensive compared to the missiles they will be defending against. At $4 million per missile they won't be used to knock out $20,000 drones. With an operational range of up 99 miles I'm guessing they'll mainly be useful in deterring aircraft, but still as Agi says it's a numbers game and Putin's generals have shown themselves quite capable of throwing away any number of lives for even a marginal target. A single $Billion Patriot battery could well find itself swamped.