• xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    I know Patriot missiles are relevant to traditional airframes… But aren’t they completely irrelevant when it comes to drones? I’m pretty sure each missile costs at least 1000x the price of what it’s most likely to be aimed at.

    Edit: at four million a missile it’s closer to 10000 or 100000x

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Kinda feels like we should add a 0 to that, given the jiggery-pokery that China is also getting up to these days. I’m sure Taiwan wouldn’t mind a few shipments of the anti-ballistic variants.

    • Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      10,000 missile x 4 million dollars = 4 billion dollars. Maybe this is why I stopped checking how expensive war is, it makes it more depressing when we talk numbers.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      Taiwan has seven Patriot batteries. For reference, Ukraine initially got two Patriots, and a third one in December. They have to cover a lot more territory than Taiwan, but they’ve basically shut down Russian missile attacks. Including Russia’s hypersonic missile, which is a very important datapoint for military planners to know.

  • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Does Russia even have 1000 operational aircraft at this point?