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Comment on Roundoff Error and the Patriot Missile (1992)parent

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suggests low confidence in individual missiles

Or the high consequence of an individual miss. Not that I disagree that Patriot took a long time to evolve to effectiveness, but it's probably more complicated. Take for example the Phalanx CIWS, which fires hundreds of rounds at each target, even though theoretically a single round should be enough, because missing a single incoming target would be very, very bad.

Yeah, but bullets a dumb and cheap. The multi $M rocket with radar, guidance should have at least 90% hit rate against SCUD like big target. Agree, not an easy task for Mach 5 SCUD.

should have at least 90% hit rate

Why? Just because it's expensive?

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