(Oops!) Misfired Patriot missile hits farm in Qatar: report - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Misfired Patriot missile hits farm in Qatar: report
Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:52am EDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Patriot missile hit a farm in Qatar
after being accidentally fired from a base used by U.S.
forces in the Gulf Arab state, Al Jazeera television said
on Tuesday.

The Qatar-based television said the missile launched
from Assayliyah base did not cause any casualties.
The Patriot system is an anti-missile system.

Officials at Assayliyah were not available for comment.

U.S.-allied Qatar was a launch pad for the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq in 2003. It hosts the U.S. Army's
Central Command (CENTCOM).

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1617718320071016

[Richard Steele]

1. Oops. nm

[cornermouse]

2. My first question.

Why were we firing off any Patriot missiles at all?

My second?

It really was an accident?

[dipsydoodle]

3. Do they work anyway ?

During the first conflict with Iraq I recall the Israeli's found that system to be useful as an ashtray on Harley Davidson.

[sailor65]

4. The problem was not

with the Patriot itself, the problem was its rapid conversion from an antiaircraft weapon to an antimissile weapon for the conflict. That was a human judgement problem, not a system problem.

When they finially took the time to straighten it out, the Patriot became an excellent antimissile weapon.

[Nihil]

5. You're joking?

The only thing that Patriot managed to hit in that conflict was
a f*cking BRITISH plane coming in to land!

The Patriot missile system is as big a heap of shit as the PATRIOT act
(and, strangely enough, it benefits many of the same people).

:grr:

[sailor65]

9. Not joking at all.

The failures that lead to that incident were failures in IFF interoperability, and in the fact that the battery in question was not properly brought online (Several comm paths were missing, causing the crew to make a fire/no-fire decision without enough data). They were largely US failures, to be sure, but my praise of the Patriot design itself was technical in nature.

And the Patriot Missle hardware has absolutely nothing to do with the Patriot Act.

Edited for additional content

[NightWatcher]

6. This on the day that Putin visits Iran???

it sounds kinda hincky to me. The entire region sounds as though they are on "Butt-Pucker Factor Level 10"

Are we using another proxy to pick a fight with Iran and their proxy, Russia? This does not bode well for us.

[Javaman]

7. They must have thought they saw a low flying Putin. nt

[SergeyDovlatov]

8. I am really worried about those accidental missile launches