Oops! U.S. Patriot missile accidentally launched in Qatar

[babylonsister]

http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/us_patriot_accidentally_launch.html

U.S. Patriot accidentally launched in Qatar

by Aamer Madhani

A U.S. Patriot missile was accidentally launched last night from an American military base in the Gulf country of Qatar, Pentagon officials confirmed today.

Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the missile self-destructed after the launch and its debris was found three to four miles from the launch site. The incident occurred during training exercises and the military is still trying to determine whether the launch was due to human failure or some sort of mechanical problem, Ham said.

No one was injured and no damage was reported.

"We don't know why or how the missile inadvertently launched, but it did," Ham told a Pentagon press conference. "Preliminary indications are that it did what it was expected to do. It self-destructed."

The missile was fired from Camp As Sayliya, the U.S. military base on the outskirts of Doha that houses U.S. Central Command.

The Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system designed to protect against short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and advanced aircraft. It was most notably used during the Gulf War in defense against Scud missiles fired by the Iraqi military.

The Patriot batteries have been hampered by technical problems in the past. At the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, the Patriot system twice misidentified and shot down coalition aircraft.

In another incident in the first weeks of the war, an U.S. Air Force pilot flying an F-16 fighter jet received a signal that he was being targeted by radar that he later learned was an American Patriot battery. Believing the enemy had a bead on him, the pilot fired one of his own missiles and destroyed the battery.

[MADem]

1. Oh, joy...it self destructed. on its way to ...WHERE??

I think Corporal Slippery McButterfingers needs to be reassigned from the Patriot Battery to the Mess Hall for awhile...

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Could it have reached Iran?

Who wants to bet that it was pointed in the general direction of Tehran when it was "accidentally" launched?

[puerco-bellies]

4. It's got a range of roughly 80 miles.

The patriot is an anti-aircraft missile so it would be fairly useless as a weapon to launch against a landmass target.

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. Got it, thanks. n/t

[ThomCat]

3. A practice attack against Iran that got out of hand?

:shrug:

[TomInTib]

5. This one takes me back 35+ years.

I was TDA on the US Rathburn, a destroyer escort (since de-commissioned).

We were conducting anti-submarine drills in WestPac and were prepared to engage a dummy sub with an armed ASROC missle.

So we found the dummy and fired one off. Those babies would arc out a couple of miles, punch in and head for the nearest large chunk of metal.

That rocket hit the water, searched around, and headed straight back at us.

Priceless.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. and you now can laught about it

but I bet you were not at the time

;-)

[TomInTib]

7. No kidding.

Not until Fire Control blew it up about a half-mile from the boat.

Then we were rolling around on the bridge like a bunch of chimpanzees.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Glad fire control got it

and then you could all have a good adrenalin laugh

:-)

Them are the best actually

[Redstone]

10. Gee, why am I not surprised that it never occured to any Navy engineers to

figure that the ASROC might, just maybe, ought to have had, let's say, a $2.00 pressure sensor and associated circuitry installed, so the warhead would not go off unless it was far enough underwater to make sure the "nearest large chunk of metal" was deep enough that it couldn't be the keel of a surface ship?

Memo to Navy: The letters mean Anti-SUBMARINE, you dopes.

Ah, your tax dollars at work yet again.

Redstone

[TomInTib]

11. Nah, too simple.

And too inexpensive.

Stop making sense, Redstone.

[Redstone]

13. Oh, trust me, I know. Through the 1980s, I was involved in design work on MANY military systems,

(including some damn successful ones, such as the ALQ-99 jamming pods that they're still using now, and the revolutionary SINCGARS radio system), and I've seen my share of dog designs. Though some were good, as I mentioned.

Redstone

[TomInTib]

15. Well I'll be sonofabitch...

I had no idea, Redstone.

Whole 'nother view, Brother.

Have I told you that my life is sucking beyond belief?

[Redstone]

16. Yeah, I was in the electronics business for quite a while. Hey, tell me your troubles via PM,

and I'll get back to you tomorrow or the next day. Things not great for me, either. But I'm pulling out of it.

PS: I wasn't exaggerating about SINCGARS being revolutionary. It was the first frequency-hopping system, which made it essentially jamproof.

Redstone

[TomInTib]

17. I remember reading about SINCGARS some time back.

Do you know where the concept originated?


By the way, I will get back to you tomorrow on the Miseries.

[Redstone]

18. Single-Channel Integrated Ground and Aircraft Radio System. Developed by

ITT Fort Wayne, based on an idea that (frequency hopping) had been kicking around for some years, originated by DARPA (of course).

The first million-dollar-plus contract I ever signed for the company I worked for was for SINCGARS components, based in no small part on a unique design I came up with (me, who had never gone to college for engineering) to overcome a problem they had with intermittent signal losses in the airborne component of the system.

Of course, I had already designed a similar fix for the venerable ARC-164 radio, so it was kind of a gimme.

Redstone

[TomInTib]

19. Wow.

And aren't you up too late for a sick person?


You know, radio and television frequency has always been a concept that my mind cannot even begin to grasp.

However, my equally uneducated Father is a veritable genius on the subject.

More on that tomorrow.

As I am already pretty wasted at this early hour, could you PM a reminder about my Dad?

It's a doozy.

Tom

[Redstone]

20. I'll do that. And while I'm at it, do the name Have Blue, Pave Low, and Have Quick

mean anything to you? I worked on components for those as well. Others, which cannot be named.

I was damned sharp when I was younger.

Yeah, I'm up late, because Mister Demon Pain has his claws in me tonight, for the second night in a row. But the Vodka and Vicodin bring clarity sometimes, as I'm sure you know.

We'll talk later.

Redstone

[TomInTib]

21. Yeah, Pave Low...

While I cannot recall the details, I do remember either hearing or reading about it and thinking, "Holy Shit".

The other two, I do not know.

And, fuck, at this point I may be mistaken about Pave Low. But I think not.

Sorry about that pain, Redstone. But my experience with that thing is that it is far better to stay awake and deal with it, rather than try to wrestle it to sleep.

Man, I could use some Vics right about now. I am not in pain, just hurtin'.

[Redstone]

22. Pave Low is still around, under various names. Think of any helicopter that is

a "K" version, as in MH-53K.

Have Blue was the one with the "wow" factor."

Redstone

[lovuian]

9. we spend billions on defective equipment

it such a scam

[Doc_Technical]

14. My mind's data retrieval system is defective,

every time I hear the words "Patriot Missile", I think of

Victor Kiam and Lisa Olson.

[TahitiNut]

23. Just another high-tech way to blow off our own foot - that's "leadership."

It's not safe on the same planet with the superpower gang that can't shoot straight.