Newsgroups: sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history
From: henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: was von Braun, now NMD
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 03:22:16 GMT

In article <020120011902299308%invid@localnet.com>,
Invid Fan  <invid@localnet.com> wrote:
>The Patriots, so far as anyone can tell, never hit a scud...

Well, no, that's as far as seriously biased observers with anti-BMD axes
to grind can tell.  The data needed for a careful and unbiased evaluation
is all still classified.

(Such careful evaluations can be done.  See, for example, Ethell & Price's
"Air War South Atlantic", a very interesting post-mortem on British
aircraft-kill claims in the Falklands War.  But it requires access to the
data; E&P studied not the British records, but also the Argentine records,
and talked at length with the pilots on both sides.)
--
When failure is not an option, success  |  Henry Spencer   henry@spsystems.net
can get expensive.   -- Peter Stibrany  |      (aka henry@zoo.toronto.edu)

Newsgroups: sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history
From: henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: was von Braun, now NMD
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 13:53:29 GMT

In article <030120010439362836%invid@localnet.com>,
Invid Fan  <invid@localnet.com> wrote:
>> Well, no, that's as far as seriously biased observers with anti-BMD axes
>> to grind can tell.  The data needed for a careful and unbiased evaluation
>> is all still classified.
>>
>The scuds broke up in the air, and the Patriots hit the first piece it
>saw which usualy wasn't the warhead.

And your evidence for these conclusions is...?

>It has nothing to do with an anti-BMD bias.

Sure it does.  When you look for the source of the "no hits" claims,
familiar names appear.  Of course, they don't *advertise* their biases;
"we're impartial observers, you can believe what we say".

As far as I know, there has been *no* thorough study of the matter by
honestly unbiased observers, due to the inaccessibility of the crucial
evidence.

The truth is probably somewhere in between the Army's claims and the
naysayers' claims, but we may never know just where.
--
When failure is not an option, success  |  Henry Spencer   henry@spsystems.net
can get expensive.   -- Peter Stibrany  |      (aka henry@zoo.toronto.edu)