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The volley was fired at a massed coordinated strike of 6 Kinzhals, 9 Kalibr cruise missiles, and 3 Iskander ballistic missiles all arriving at the same time. Al
by ak217 3y ago
The volley was fired at a massed coordinated strike of 6 Kinzhals, 9 Kalibr cruise missiles, and 3 Iskander ballistic missiles all arriving at the same time. All missiles were intercepted but one managed to incapacitate a single Patriot launcher after being intercepted (unclear if there was an actual detonation). A Patriot battery consists of multiple dispersed launchers, radar, and control units. It's hard to imagine better performance than this for an air defense system tasked with protecting a capital city.
The US has a variable capacity for Patriot missile manufacturing but its baseline far exceeds the 300 missiles per year that you quoted.
- ummonk 3y agoThere was a clear large explosion on the ground while the Patriot was no longer intercepting. This wasn't just debris getting through. That said, it's not necessarily due to failure to intercept that this happened - we have video of 30 interceptors being launched in rapid succession, and it's likely all 32 interceptors in the battery had been launched and expended when the final strike and explosion happened. So it's more of a successful saturation attack than an interception failure.