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From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Hi-Tech Scorecard
Message-ID: <1991Apr23.054014.24390@amd.com>
Date: 22 Apr 91 19:16:11 GMT
References: <1991Apr12.055321.14466@amd.com> <1991Apr5.091907.7913@amd.com> <1991Apr17.055257.13216@amd.com>
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From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)


Testimony before the House Armed Services Committee indicates that
some of the high-tech weapons did not perform nearly as well as was
first thought (or at least claimed).  Although the witnesses presumably
have their own axes to grind, their claims are interesting, to say the
least.

One witness, a professor at MIT, says that damage from Scuds may have
tripled after the Patriot missles were deployed.  The interceptors
often hit the debris from the Scud breaking up in mid-flight.  And
the extra debris, from the Patriot itself, caused damage.

Other witnesses claim that far fewer of the Scuds were intercepted than
the Army claims.

There are also reports of Tomahawk missles getting lost and hitting
apartment buildings and pools.  The Stealth fighter wasn't as stealthy
as it should have been, and the planes suffered fuel problems.  Six
of 60 Harriers were lost, a high percentage.

On a positive note, the witnesses so far have loved the A-10; it's been
credited with 1000 of the 1700 tank kills attributed to aircraft.