Comments on: These missiles are likely completely stealth to the Patriot radar for the majority of their ballistic arc

By: TRX

TRX — Fri, 26 May 2023 12:23:46 +0000

“If a Kinzhal was actually traveling Mach 5-7+ when it hit those Patriots, it would have streaked down like a meteor, glowing and throwing plasma.”

Coming next: “Rods from God.”

The Russians certainly have the launch capability, and they’ve already announced they won’t abide by the Soviet-era space weapons treaties any more.

By: Freddo

Freddo — Tue, 23 May 2023 15:36:04 +0000

Mike-SMO, I think the take-away message is that they fired 32 patriot missiles to fend off the Russian attack, a hard to replace resource. By attacking the patriot battery itself they took away the defenders decision to suffer collateral damage or spend missiles.

If we have to believe Western sources then Russia has been on the verge of running out of ammunition since May 2022. But is seems nobody bothered to inform the Russians.

By: Pseudo-Chrysostom

Pseudo-Chrysostom — Tue, 23 May 2023 07:20:07 +0000

The fields of Ruthenia are littered with the wreckage of 20th century hardware blown up by those jokes.

If the choice is engaging the flying mopeds or die, most people will choose to engage the flying mopeds. But when you are shooting one million dollar rockets at ten thousand dollar flying mopeds, that opens you up to everything else coming after it.

The USM of yesteryear itself demonstrated the wisdom of this fact, in 1991, by sending clouds of decoy drones ahead of its airforces to kick over the anthill of Iraqi AD.

By: Mike-SMO

Mike-SMO — Tue, 23 May 2023 02:58:08 +0000

Good discussion but it ignores strategy. First of all, the Russians know where the target(s) are. Cities and Patriot batters don’t move much. The Patriot missiles can’t “chase” a hypersonic weapon, but it was shown during the war in Iraq that even older Patriots can hit incoming hypersonic warheads. The “rub” is that the Patriot battery has to be the target or be close to the target. That pins down the Patriot systems abd prevents pop-up “surprises. If the Patriot battery doesn’t “see” the launch, I am sure that there is a defense net that would alert the Patriot crews. The drones (low and slow) were a joke that would have been handed off to other defensive systems. The Russian cruise missiles might have been relevant. They carry a decent size warhead and, if they are like the Tomahawks, are tough to detect and hit. A multi missle attack ( cruise + hypersonic) would make the most sense, especially against a tired or poorly trained Patriot crew, but getting several missile types on target at near the same time is no trivial undertaking.

Thus far, Russia expended several expensive and valuable missiles to obtain minor damage on a Patriot system. A draw at best. Maybe next time with better tactics….. in any event, the hypersonic threat has the Patriots pinned down, guarding the treasure of Kiev. Two can play that game. The Boys from the Ukraine have been very creative modifying and upgrading the drones abandoned by the Soviets/Russians. The airbases from which the hypersonic missile aircraft were launched are easier targets than the missile itself. Ugly game.

By: Pseudo-Chrysostom

Pseudo-Chrysostom — Sun, 21 May 2023 04:48:18 +0000

Most US/NATO AD systems use high frequency X-band radars for targeting and terminal guidance, since small wavelengths are a simple way of producing high range resolution.

There are interesting possibilities via multiple vehicles or other platforms networking with each other to function as multistatic arrays to trilaterate and triangulate object positions through passive emission and active radiation, even with very low frequencies, but that is another matter.

By: Crosbie

Crosbie — Sat, 20 May 2023 03:11:12 +0000

“A plasma bubble absorbs all electromagnetic signals”

That seems questionable. The wiki page on plasma stealth claims the effect is frequency-dependent, with lower frequency radiation simply bouncing off, just as short wave radio bounces off the ionosphere.