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From: stevenp@decwrl.pa.dec.com (Steven Philipson)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Hi-Tech Scorecard
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.055257.13216@amd.com>
Date: 16 Apr 91 19:39:40 GMT
References: <1991Apr12.055321.14466@amd.com> <1991Apr5.091907.7913@amd.com> <1991Apr6.020929.14238@amd.com> <1991Apr10.024450.21206@amd.com>
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From: stevenp@decwrl.pa.dec.com (Steven Philipson)


In article <1991Apr12.055321.14466@amd.com>,
emory!Dixie.Com!stan@gatech.edu (Stan Brown) writes;
 
> I definately remeber seeing images of Patriots that burned out
> before reaching their targets falling to the ground and exploding.

   I think not.  By the time a Patriot booster burns out and can fall to
the ground it is usually outside of visual range, particularly at
night.  Intercepts occur at about 5 to 7 miles distance, at about 25,000
feet of altitude.   There were cases of missile guidance failure during
initial boost.  The missiles impacted the ground before booster burnout.
There may have been booster failures (explosions) during launch as well,
but both of these are different than expended boosters falling back to
earth.

-- 
Steve
stevenp@decwrl.dec.com