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From: maniac%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@ (George W. Herbert)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Sparrow miss rate off Libya
Summary: Suprise!
Message-ID: <5603@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Apr 89 03:31:28 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 23
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: maniac%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@ (George W. Herbert)

In article <5588@cbnews.ATT.COM> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>A letter in the Feb 13 Aviation Week (yes, I know I'm behind on my
>reading...) observes that in the skirmish off Libya a few months ago,
>the first two Sparrows fired, one at a range of 12 miles and one at
>10, missed.  At least the third one connected.  "One would think
>pilots in Soviet ready rooms are smiling over a 1-for-3 Sparrow
>success rate from America's best."

Suprise!  In Vietnam, Over Israel, and everywhere else that guided missiles
have been used in combat, they have had actual hit percentages in the range
of 10% to 25%.  The lower number reflects the performance of our intermediate
generation sparrows.  The 33% kill rate for sparrow over libya should be a 
cause for celebration (see!  we TRIPLED thier effectiveness by only DOUBLING
their constant-dollar cost.)  and the 50% kill rate for sidewinder attempts
(one broke and would not lock on, had to be turned off and another fired) 
was better than the 15-20% last real hit percentages I saw.

george william herbert
maniac@garnet.berkeley.edu