Re: from SLATE

[Doyle Saylor <doylesaylor@xxxxxxx>]

Greetings Economists,
On Jun 7, 2007, at 6:41 AM, Jim Devine wrote:

> I thought that the idea that Patriot missiles shot down Scuds during
> the first Gulf War was a myth. Is there an expert in the house?

Doyle;
Myth about Patriots.  Under careful test conditions some missiles have
been shot down by missiles.  A bullet doesn't fly all that fast by the
way.  It's only up for a mile or so.  An intercontinental ballistic
missile gives you time to intercept.  However, as is well known, a
missile can easily be mistaken for Donald Duck flying south to Miami
Beach.  Counter measures like decoy ducks shaped like the real Donald
are just plain hard to guess which is real and which is not.  So if you
have 10,000 interceptors with a 10% accuracy rate (maybe they can get
that high who knows), and 100,000 incoming objects, what are you gonna
do?  You are going to go to Cheney and give him lots of money.  :-)
Doyle

Raytheon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon_Missile_Systems

Counter measures -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-
ballistic_missile_defense_countermeasures