I’m not convinced of the utility of Patriot/David’s Sling in modern warfare. In the early phase of the 2026 Israel/USA-Iran war, Iran was shooting about a dozen missiles per night at Israel, and there’s good indication that a substantial amount got through. Of the (admittedly limited) number of videos that leaked out of Israel, Iranian rockets were often not even met by interceptor fire at all; some videos show how infrastructure get hit during daytime while no sirens are on; and in the cases that there was successful interception the kill rate appears to be less than 1/3.
Without speculating too much, it appears that these systems are not suitable for neutralizing hypersonic missiles. Further, they’re useless against cluster munitions, and using them on attack drones is a waste. Shahed-136 is getting a range extension and a 3x speed boost by the way.
Conclusion: Israeli weaponry is shit. It’s good for fighting asymmetric warfare when you’re the overwhelmingly stronger party. It’s great taking makeshift rockets made by an underground guerilla out of the sky. Against a real country, it’s a flawed doctrine and an impossible technology.
If the USA can’t defend their bases against Iran, then what exactly is the use of these missile interceptors against an enemy like Russia?
So maybe use those billions of Euros at home developing a real strategy.
I’m not convinced of the utility of Patriot/David’s Sling in modern warfare. In the early phase of the 2026 Israel/USA-Iran war, Iran was shooting about a dozen missiles per night at Israel, and there’s good indication that a substantial amount got through. Of the (admittedly limited) number of videos that leaked out of Israel, Iranian rockets were often not even met by interceptor fire at all; some videos show how infrastructure get hit during daytime while no sirens are on; and in the cases that there was successful interception the kill rate appears to be less than 1/3.
Without speculating too much, it appears that these systems are not suitable for neutralizing hypersonic missiles. Further, they’re useless against cluster munitions, and using them on attack drones is a waste. Shahed-136 is getting a range extension and a 3x speed boost by the way.
Conclusion: Israeli weaponry is shit. It’s good for fighting asymmetric warfare when you’re the overwhelmingly stronger party. It’s great taking makeshift rockets made by an underground guerilla out of the sky. Against a real country, it’s a flawed doctrine and an impossible technology.
If the USA can’t defend their bases against Iran, then what exactly is the use of these missile interceptors against an enemy like Russia?
So maybe use those billions of Euros at home developing a real strategy.