• xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    I know Patriot missiles are relevant to traditional airframes… But aren’t they completely irrelevant when it comes to drones? I’m pretty sure each missile costs at least 1000x the price of what it’s most likely to be aimed at.

    Edit: at four million a missile it’s closer to 10000 or 100000x

  • cygnus@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    Does Russia even have 1000 operational aircraft at this point?

    • Tosti@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      7 months ago

      They are also used against hypersonic missiles the Russians have (kinzal etc.) and ballistics like s300 and s400.

        • Tosti@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          Yes they are, but in this conflict the Russians reconfigured some of them and use them in a ground to ground attackrole.

          They had shortages of other tactical weapons and apparently a nice stockpile of these missiles.

      • 100_percent_a_bot@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        You might want to put the hypersonic part in quotes, they’re basically just really expensive ballistic missiles that fly slightly faster. Considering their price tag, Russia would have probably been better off never developing them anyways

        • Tosti@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          Yes, but afaik the hypersonic term applies to weapons over mach 4. NATO also adds additional requirements for hypersonics, such as manourerability. But they have enough speed to qualify.

            • Tosti@feddit.nl
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              Yes exactly, also each icmb would qualify (during re-entry they also pickup “some” speed)… but it seems like hypersonic is sort of a marketing sticker thing, like “green” and “low fat”.

              The NATO hypersonics that are being worked on should be able to make evasive manouvera at speed, will be interesting to see.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    7 months ago

    Kinda feels like we should add a 0 to that, given the jiggery-pokery that China is also getting up to these days. I’m sure Taiwan wouldn’t mind a few shipments of the anti-ballistic variants.

    • Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      10,000 missile x 4 million dollars = 4 billion dollars. Maybe this is why I stopped checking how expensive war is, it makes it more depressing when we talk numbers.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Taiwan has seven Patriot batteries. For reference, Ukraine initially got two Patriots, and a third one in December. They have to cover a lot more territory than Taiwan, but they’ve basically shut down Russian missile attacks. Including Russia’s hypersonic missile, which is a very important datapoint for military planners to know.