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Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by olympus on Monday December 04, 2017 @11:23AM (#15845017)
It's only "about" 10 hZ, on that order of magnitude. Indvidually you can have faster components and even though the process is pipelined, the last guidance correction that matters takes the sum total of all component times in the system. The seeker has to see the target is off-axis, then the computer has to calculate the proportional control input, and then the servos actuate the fins.

You also might be overestimating what "current tech" means in military hardware. The PAC-3 Patriots were entered into service from 1995-2000, meaning they were designed with late 1980's technology. The Saudis don't get to have the true top end hardware, the US won't sell their "best stuff" until they have "new best stuff" to beat it.

Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by samstave on Monday December 04, 2017 @12:05PM (#15845395)
Whats our current "best stuff" in missile tech?
Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by gressquel on Monday December 04, 2017 @04:13PM (#15847571)
Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by e12e on Monday December 04, 2017 @05:50PM (#15848303)
I wonder if the laser weapon systems will go anywhere in the end. Certainly seems easier to target, and cheaper to shoot. But there's still a lot of energy that needs to go into a missile to be certain it's disabled.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Weapon_System

Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by tim333 on Monday December 04, 2017 @10:53PM (#15849578)
An ICBM warhead is going to be a tough target for that. Very fast so you don't have long to heat it and fitted with heat shielding for reentry already.
Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by jhayward on Monday December 04, 2017 @04:47PM (#15847843)
It depends on what kind of missile you want to hit. A scud is very different from an ICBM, which are both quite different from anti-ship and some of the area denial weapons.
Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by rurban on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @03:44AM (#15850606)
In perspective: The Russian Satan 2 is indefensible, and also the older SS-N-27 Sizzler shot from very nearby submarines. Not enough time to react on those.
Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by olympus on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @05:48PM (#15856815)
There's really no such thing as an indefensible missile, just like there's no such thing as an impenetrable computer network. Difficult to defend against, those exist. Missiles with an extremely low probability that we can physically intercept, those exist. But defending against a missile starts as soon as a possibility of launch occurs, and you can bet that a lot of people spend a lot of time figuring out how to defend against "indefensible." They aren't perfect, but they aren't going to bat .000 either.
Re:Did American Missile Defense Fail in Saudi Arabia? by rurban on Thursday December 07, 2017 @06:13PM (#15875270)
Well, Russians claim otherwise and Wikipedia confirms. It's of course highly contra-productive to tell such things the American public.