rharel@fab8.intel.com (RICHARD HAREL) (03/15/91)
From: rharel@fab8.intel.com (RICHARD HAREL) >>From: maarrrk@gauss.ucsb.edu (Mark Erickson) >> Equipment is only as good as the people who use it, and the >> Iraqis did not appear to have their act together at all. >> >> I don't think that they could have maintained and used >>>>>>>>our equipment. The Israelis had Patriot missiles, but <<<<<<<<<<<< >> did not have the training necessary to defend their country >> without U.S. crews. >> >> --maarrrk The first Patriot missiles were flown into Israel January 19th 1991 by the SAC from Germany - along with the crews to man them - one day after 7 scud missiles hit Israeli territory. They were manned by American soldiers because the Israelis were still undergoing training in Texas when the war broke out. So when you say "the Israelis had Patriot missiles" - yes they did - AFTER the above mentioned date. Another point to be mentioned is that the Patriot was never originally designed to defend the skies against ballistic missiles. Even the later models which were designated as "anti-missile-missiles" failed to give complete protection to the Israelis, Saudis and the unfortunate reservists. SCUDS were without a doubt, Saddam's most effective/successful weapon of the war - especially since no one was 100 percent sure that chemical and biological warheads wouldn't be used. A single SCUD missile was able to kill more than 20 percent of the allied troops lost in combat. As far as I know, there is NO effective ground to air defense system available (and in service) that can protect a country from a full scale ballistic missile attack.