Agreed on all counts. Iron Dome appears to be a vastly better missile defense solution than the Patriot system, but that's basically because they deal with diff

Agreed on all counts. Iron Dome appears to be a vastly better missile defense solution than the Patriot system, but that's basically because they deal with different problems. Iron Dome is a realistic reaction to short-range, unguided rockets which can be intercepted with proximity explosives; it's entirely suitable for defending Tel Aviv against the West Bank. At a nuclear level, the Safeguard system may have been a reasonable variant of Patriot defenses to stop ICBM attacks, I wouldn't really know. But in the gap between the two, defenders have to shoot down guided, high-velocity conventional warheads near the target site using near-impact or impact interceptors. That's pretty much the worst possible position to be in, and as far as I can see no ABM system is actually effective at it.