How accurate were Patriot missiles during the Persian Gulf War? Did they hit:

• A. 95% of Scuds?
• B. 79% of Scuds?
• C. 40% of Scuds?
• D. 9% of Scuds?
• E. 2% of Scuds?

The correct answer: all of the above, depending upon how you look at it. The first figure came from initial reports of 45 out of 47 Iraqi missiles destroyed. That’s the figure you heard on CNN, with plenty of Pentagon puffery. The B and C numbers are the new official figures, representing the percentage of intercepted missiles originally targeted at Israel and Saudi Arabia, respectively. The 9% figure comes from the Government Accouting Office, which found only that many attempts resulted in destruction. The last figure comes from the Israeli Defense Force. (All these figures come from Patriot Games, a story in Slate.)

Just something to keep in mind when Rumsfeld tells us how precise our technology is today. (And remember, these weren’t ballistic missiles.)

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2003 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Miscellany.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.