Two Failures In One Day - Missile Defense Is An Embarrassment - It Won't Work
Within the new $700 billion defense budget the U.S. Congress allocated more money for U.S. missile defense:
The Pentagon would spend an additional $1 billion on two of Lockheed’s missile defense systems, bringing total appropriations for the Missile Defense Agency to $11.5 billion.
More U.S. taxpayer money will also be given to missile defense contractors in Israel:
Congress has dramatically increased its budget for the Israeli missile defense programs by $148 million to include ongoing Iron Dome and Arrow 3 development.“I am pleased and excited to announce that the US Congress has approved a record sum for Israel’s missile defense program: $705m. in 2018!” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced on Monday.
Two incidents last night provide again that missile defense is a waste of money. It hardly ever works. Strategic missile defense, which the U.S. builds to take down intercontinental missiles, will not protect against the new weapons Russia and others are now pursuing. The U.S. military acknowledges this. After Putin announced the new weapon systems the Trump administration raised the white flag and suddenly asked for new arms control talks.
Last night the Yemeni army launched (vid) seven ballistic missiles against Saudi Arabia. Three of those targeted the capital Riyadh, four were aimed at military and infrastructure targets. In Riyadh the Saudi forces fired a a number of Patriot surface-to-air missiles and claimed that those successfully intercepted the Yemeni missiles. The Saudis Patriot Advanced Capabilities-2 system (PAC-2) are made by the U.S. company Raytheon which also hires former U.S. soldiers as 'Patriot Battery Systems Technician Field Engineers' to man and maintain the Saudi systems.
Earlier Saudi claims of successful intercepts turned out to be false. The small warheads of the Yemeni missiles separate from the larger missile body and are difficult to detect. The U.S. provided systems inevitably aims at the bigger empty missile body.
This time various videos from Riyadh show that at least seven interceptors were fired against the three incoming missiles. At least two of the interceptors failed catastrophically. The other five seem to have self-destruct at height. There is no sign of any real interception.
One of the Patriot interceptors prematurely exploded during its boost phase. Its burning debris showered the ground with hot parts.
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Another Patriot interceptor made a u-turn and struck the ground some hundred meters away from random onlookers:
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Inevitably some snarky comments followed:
Jeffrey Lewis @ArmsControlWonk
When your PAC2 gets radicalized and turns on you ...
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Haykal Bafana @BaFana3
Even #Saudi Patriot missiles know who the real enemy is: They boomerang back to earth and bomb Saudi Arabia.
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agitpapa @agitpapa
How a real Patriot should function, killing the guys who did 9/11 instead of serving them.
The other defense missiles seem to have self-destruct presumably after they lost contact with the target. Each of these Patriot MIM-104C missiles cost some $2-3 million.
The Saudis say that one man was killed and two were wounded in the Yemeni attack. It is more likely that these people were victims of the missile defense fire than of the attacking missiles.
In another late night missile defense incident Israel fired some twenty of its U.S. paid Iron Dome interceptors against presumed missiles coming from the Gaza strip:
Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile shield intercepted a number of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Israeli media reported, after warning sirens sounded around the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory.
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That first report turned out to be fake news. Several videos show the defense missiles explode in a flash high up in the air. Such explosions are often interpreted as successful intercept but are usually just the programmed self-destruction which prevents that whole missile carcasses fall down on the people below. Indeed none of a missiles the Israeli army fired destroyed any targets as none were there:
Multiple Code Red false alarms were blasted in the Hof Ashkelon and Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Councils and in the southern city of Sderot Sunday evening as the Iron Dome missile-defense mistook bullets from the Gaza Strip for a fusillade of rockets.The regional councils originally reported that the Iron Dome anti-missile system was said to have intercepted every rocket rocket. However, the IDF later confirmed that no salvo had been fired at Israel.
“No salvo was fired at territory in the State of Israel. The situation in the Gaza region is usual. The interceptions by the Iron Dome system were activated because of the firing of bullets from the strip. Nothing fell in Israeli territory. It is being checked whether mortars or rockets were even fired at all,” the statement read.
Before the IDF clarification, the regional councils instructed the southern residents to remain in sheltered rooms.
Each Iron Dome missile costs at least $50,000. The IDF just spent $1,000,000 of U.S. taxpayer money because some 'oversensitive' system mistook random gun fire not aimed at Israel for incoming missiles.
The U.S. strategic missile defense is against incoming long range missiles. The Patriot systems in Saudi Arabia are supposed to defend against medium range ballistic missiles. The Israeli Iron Dome systems should defend against short range missile attacks.
All three systems are obviously incapable of fulfilling their task. All three demonstrate that missile defense is prohibitively costly. The cost of each missile defense interceptor is a multitude of the costs of the attacking missile. The number of interceptors is limited and the systems can be exhausted and overwhelmed by swarm attacks of cheap dummies followed by a real attack.
Last year the Saudis were pushed by the Trump administration to buy the new Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system:
The package that cleared Friday would include 44 THAAD launchers, 360 interceptors, 16 THAAD Fire Control and Communications Mobile Tactical Station Groups and seven AN/TPY-2 THAAD radars, along with associated support equipment and training.
This new system is supposed to defend Saudi Arabia against Iranian ballistic missiles. But according to a South-Korean analysis the THAAD missile defense system has the same problem the Patriot system has. It can easily be deceived by cheap decoys and it tends to hit the incoming missile body while missing the separate warhead which simply continues its attack on the target.
When the Saudi clown prince visited Washington last week The U.S. president made an embarrassing show (vid) out of such sales. The Saudis will have to pay some $15 billion for the basically useless THAAD system. "That’s peanuts to you," said Trump. But Saudi citizens may not agree with such banter. The clown prince was, apparently, not amused.
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But what can he do? If he stops buying useless U.S. weapons the borg in Washington will 'regime change' him in no time.
Current missile defense is economically not viable. The limits of physics make it easy to overcome. But the systems still have their purpose.
For U.S. politicians they are a salable way to move taxpayer money towards the owners of the defense industry. For the Israeli government they are a (U.S. paid) psychological tool to prevent its people from protesting against the consequences of Zionist land robbery. The Saudis see them as inevitable ransom payment.
Yesterday's public failures of missile defense endanger those purposes. If the general public comes to believe that missile defense can not work the whole scam falls apart. Any future sale should thus be conditioned on a promise to never use the acquired system.
Posted by b on March 26, 2018 at 16:36 UTC | Permalink
« previous page#16 - Does anyone have a handle on why Mr. Global is in such a hell-fire fury to get this war on already, like yesterday?
Because that is when Trump can introduce all aspects of a War Economy - forced redirection of labour and factory output, unlimited credit for weapons, stopping of dissent on the streets, internment of non-patriots, limitations on media coverage, FEMA camps. What's not to like?
@P 104
Yes, it doesn't take long for US presidents to catch the drift -- war's the thing.
Randolph Bourne -- War is the Health of the State
. . .The moment war is declared, however, the mass of the people, through some spiritual alchemy, become convinced that they have willed and executed the deed themselves. They then, with the exception of a few malcontents, proceed to allow themselves to be regimented, coerced, deranged in all the environments of their lives, and turned into a solid manufactory of destruction toward whatever other people may have, in the appointed scheme of things, come within the range of the Government’s disapprobation. The citizen throws off his contempt and indifference to Government, identifies himself with its purposes, revives all his military memories and symbols, and the State once more walks, an august presence, through the imaginations of men. Patriotism becomes the dominant feeling, and produces immediately that intense and hopeless confusion between the relations which the individual bears and should bear toward the society of which he is a part. . .here
Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 28 2018 3:09 utc | 103
Mercouris at the Duran, apologies if a repeat.
http://theduran.com/expelling-russian-diplomats-tokenism-europe-petulance-washington/
(imho) AM is right about the ‘tokenism’ on the part of EU countries expelling Russian ‘dimplomats’ (sic, accidental typo) re. the Skirpal poison scandal. Note some refused to expel anyone and others like Poland jump on the bandwagon: EU disunity on display.
None of that amounts to much, and Russia equalising the no. US diplos / R. diplos ‘in country’ is not really an agressive move (see link) though I can’t judge AM on the analysis of the US.
More disquieting, which AM doesn’t mention, is that EU diplos are per their words acting in solidarity (plus other vague, non legally binding, formulations) with ‘Britain’. Such actions can’t be stopped and are always allowed. However, it implies that the body of International Law that deals with CW ‘attacks - use’ is being by-passed. For ex. Macron first stated that he needed more evidence (re. Skirpal Novichok) and then suddenly came out with some strong ‘support’ for GB. So what happened there? Who coerced whom with what threats?
Posted by: Noirette | Mar 28 2018 15:54 utc | 104
@105 noirette... the west are throwing away any idea of international law and become like a rogue enterprise... the opcw is not being used as the guiding authority.. instead - supposition and conjecture have substituted for any type of facts the opcw could provide..
Posted by: james | Mar 28 2018 16:05 utc | 105
@105 "So what happened there? Who coerced whom with what threats?"
Just a guess but it probably has something to do with Brexit. Teresa may have capitulated if Macron and Merkel expel a few Russian diplomats.
Posted by: dh | Mar 28 2018 16:05 utc | 106
Noirette and James. Regarding International Law, I’ll quote some our new NSA, John Bolton’s “greatest hits.”
“It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so -- because, over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrict the United States.”
-John Bolton as told to Insight magazine, August 2, 1999, Insight magazine
And to clarify why should the US ignore the ICC and International Law?
“My main concern is for our country's top civilian and military leaders, those responsible for our defense and foreign policy. They are the real potential targets of the ICC's politically unaccountable prosecutor.”
So, when the US commits war crimes and crimes against humanity, we should not be held accountable.
That is precisely the reason why Bush II and then Obama officially removed US troops from Iraq. Iraq’s President, Maliki refused to let them stay if they continued to be unaccountable for law-breaking. Both Presidents tried to reinstate that policy which Paul Bremer had included in the “Provisional Government” after our invasion, regime change and occupation. Maliki’s elected government refused to extend that amnesty to US troops.
BTW: That’s a major reason why President Obama began insisting that Iraqi President “Maliki has to go.” “Luckily for US foreign policy goals, ISIL suddenly appeared, drove their convoy from Mosul to Baghdad and had nearly surrounded the city before Maliki decided “I have to go.”
Oh, and despite the Constitution which Bolton claims to worship above all “law” clearly stating that Treaties the US ratifies have the same legally-binding force as the Constitution itself, he said:
“[T]here is no reason to consider treaties as ‘legally’ binding internationally, and certainly not as ‘law’ themselves.” -John Bolton, “Is There Really ‘Law’ in International Affairs,” 10 Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems (Spring 2000)
Posted by: Daniel | Mar 29 2018 1:49 utc | 107
Patriot Missiles Are Made in America and Fail Everywhere
by Jeffrey Lewis
The evidence is in: the missile defense system that the United States and its allies rely on is a lemon.It’s not just that falling debris in Riyadh killed at least one person and sent two more to the hospital. There’s no evidence that Saudi Arabia intercepted any missiles at all.
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But if the Patriot system doesn’t work, why would the United States or the Saudi government claim otherwise?At some level, we should be sympathetic. The basic function of a government is to provide security for its citizens. There is enormous pressure on the Saudi government to show that it is taking steps to defend its citizens. By asserting successful intercepts — assertions that are uncritically spread in headlines — the Saudi government is able to present itself as fulfilling its obligations to protect its population.
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The danger here is that leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United States will come to believe their own nonsense.
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And so we need to tell the truth: Missile defense systems do not represent a solution to the challenge posed by growing missile capabilities or an escape from vulnerability in the nuclear age. There is no magic wand that can “knock down” all the missiles aimed at the United States or its allies. The only solution is to persuade countries not to build these weapons in the first place. If we fail, defenses won’t save us.
- Congress has not only approved a $ 50 billion increase of the defense budget for the coming/this budget year but it will increase a ANNUAL increase of $ 50 billion.
http://www.unz.com/article/how-the-pentagon-devours-the-budget/
Posted by: Willy2 | Apr 1 2018 21:52 utc | 109
The entire scam is maddening and sickening! And on top of that, if it wasn't bad enough, we are to trust that Lockheed Martin has developed a safe nuclear fusion plane that can safely electrify 80,000 homes, in which Lockheed Martin references the sun as an example of nuclear fusion, as opposed to an atomic bomb which results in explosion from nuclear fusion!
The Israeli Deal Has Only Given America Body Bags, Bloodshed, National Debt, and International Disgrace – Andrea Iravani
The Dark Brutality of Israel – Andrea Iravani
https://rebel0007com.wordpress.com/2017/11/10/the-dark-brutality-of-israel/
Why Would Anyone Believe the CIA About Iran?! – Andrea Iravani
https://rebel0007com.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/why-would-anyone-believe-the-cia/
Posted by: Andrea Iravani | Apr 3 2018 15:19 utc | 110
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Thanks, Gideon and harrylaw for the great links re. Israel’s Iron Dome (which I concur is an exaggerated if not outright hoax boondoggle).
During Israel’s 2014 merciless slaughter of some 2,500 human beings in Gaza, I went round and round with defenders of missile defense. I pointed out that both Israel and the US ultimately admitted that Patriot Missiles had not intercepted a single Scud during our 1991 war on Iraq.
BTW: That was when I first realized how ubiquitous were the hasbarats online. I’d come across them during the Ukraine coup, too, but not to the same extent. Clearly well coordinated. I even saw more experienced/trained hasbarats step in to replace others when it was clear I was eating them alive. I even took to asking the weakest commenters to put me in touch with their managers. And sometimes they did! LOL
Posted by: Daniel | Mar 27 2018 23:31 utc | 101