S-300PMU in action
 

S-300PMU1 is the best long range SAM,second only to S-400. :rock:

I was thinking the same thing myself.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/airdef/s-400.htm

What, no one likes Patriot PAC 2? It's seen combat and racked up an impressive score.* You can't say that about the S-300 :nope:

*Patriot has even downed F-18s and Tornados :dead:

The Patriot is a good long range SAM and indeed has the advangate of having been tested,but,it is also no secret that USA bought herself S-300 trying to improve the patriot by studying the russian way of doing it,since they have long tradition in making SAMs (while USA doesn't ).

As you said,it even downed F-18s and Tornados.This because the IFF (identification Friend or Foe) of the patriot was problematic.

The Greek army has both PAC-2/3 and S-300.The army itself wanted only S-300 after the evaluation it did,but we bought the patriots for political reasons.Not that it isn't a good system,it is,but it has known problems.

Also:

1st Gulf war
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"The results of these studies are disturbing. They suggest that the Patriot's intercept rate during the Gulf War was very low. The evidence from these preliminary studies indicates that Patriot's intercept rate could be much lower than ten percent, possibly even zero." (Statement of Theodore A. Postol before the U.S. House Of Representatives Committee on Government Operations, April 7, 1992)
Professor Theodore Postol (a professor of Science, technology and National Security Policy at M.I.T.)

http://www.cdi.org/issues/bmd/Patriot.html


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2002
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5.Test results:In 2002 it went extensive tests for it's capabilities.The missile succesfully shot down lone high speed and cruise missiles.Than 2-3 batteries of PAC-2Gem and PAC-3 was used in multiple targets.Keep in mind that in none of the tests the number of the targets is more than the number of batteries.PAtriots didn't had complete success in any of the tests.
The problems it met are
-Some failed to launch
-Some lost target lock at critical times.
-When jammer drones are used the missile system connection was severed.
http://www.cdi.org/missile-defense/tests-pac3.cfm

2nd Gulf War
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6.Combat results:1 Year later as we all know Gulf war happened and Patriots were deployed in Gulf to stop the Scuds.But scuds never came Saddam clearly had run out of them.Just 9 missile launches were made all of them were short range.Patriot managed to shot them down but the system met many many troubles

-The system radar detects many false or spurious tracks continuously.
-It even engaged and fired missiles in those false targets inauto mode.
-The system had a habbit of locking and firing to friendly aircraft thinking they are missiles.It shot down a Tornado and an F-18 .It also locked and fired to an F-16 but the F-16 destroyed the Patriot radar by launching an HARM missile.

The comments of commanding officer are
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However, at today's Congressional hearing, General Kadish stated that while much investigation still needs to be done, he believes that there "could be both flaws in the [Patriot] system and also flaws in the application of the system."
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http://www.clw.org/archive/oldclw/pages/8_383.html


Now,there is no direct confrontation of the 2 systems as S-300 hasn't been tested in real war.In Greece both have been tested in the test field in Crete and both have destroyed their targets.However,i have only read good things about Russian SAMs.Greece operates SA-8B Gecko, TorM1, S-300,Pac 2/3,Crotale NG,Improved Hawk PIP III and the only systems about which there was never a complaint from the operators leaked to the press was from the Russian systems.In fact they are also the more numerous.

If you love the S-300 then check out this video (60mb). It is in Russina though but it is great.

http://rapidshare.de/files/10178619/S-300.avi.html

:up:

What about the SM-3? That can knock out Ballistic Missiles. :o

True,but i didn't consider it because as far as i know it's only naval based missile.In that category it may be the best,but i don't know what the Russians have.I am more informed in infantry systems :D

iam surprised that the us still uses patriots to be honest, after all that 'interception' disagreements.


guy1- so how many interceptions were there?
militaryguy- bazillions
guy1- and how many things were shot down precisely?
militaryguy- bugger all

For a normal country this would be true,but not for USA.The Patriot isn't bad.Specially against aircrafts it is very good (maybe too good,since was seeing everything as hostile sometimes).As antiballistic missed some targets,but they are harder to hit than planes.

The thing is,that USA doesn't really need an exceptional SAM,since her airforce is too strong for any of her potential foes.The SAM is defensive weapon,USA isn't facing any attacker any time soon.So why sweat?It's good enough for the limited defensive needs USA has when deploying forces abroads,so it's fine.

On the contrary for example,Israel that faces a much bigger ballistic threat,wasn't content enough with the Patriot ,so they developed with some US help the Arrow/Arrow 2 family ,which is supposed to be better against such threats.

BTW,here is a very short (1MB) video of PAC-3 launch against drone target at Crete testing zone:

http://www.haf.gr/media/patriot_launch2.wmv

Thanks.Nice.But just to avoid confusion,this is not the S-300 PMU1,but the S-300V (inferior to the PMU).At the beginning of the video there is also a firing of SA-8B Gecko.