Do pions mediate strong force between nucleons?
Richard Akerman
BETWEEN nucleons (quark confinement preventing gluons from mediating it
themselves).
Reply by email please.
Paul Morville
When was the Patriot first invented? When was it first implemented? I was
under the impression that it came into existence shortly before the the
Persian Gulf War. Is this correct? Thanks.
Bryant Fujimoto
The Patriot missle system is ~20 years old. It was originally designed
to shoot down airplanes, not missles. I believe that the 20 year figure
does not include the time it took to develop the missle, so from the time
the missle was first proposed to the present is more than 20 years, but
I am not sure how much more.
Bryant Fujimoto
The usual disclaimers apply.
Bryant Fujimoto
>pmor...@jade.tufts.edu (Paul Morville) writes:
I found some more complete information (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
April 1991). The first contracts for the development of the Patriot
were awarded to Raytheon in 1967. They were first deployed in Europe
in 1985 and were designed to shoot down aircraft. The conversion to
anti-missile defence is more recent. Therefore, my estimate of ~20 years
is not quite right. Its either 25 years (from the start of development)
or 7 years (from the time the first batteries were deployed).
Craig Powderkeg DeForest
The patriot missile system was, as I understand it, originally intended to
shoot down oncoming missiles. When that didn't work, the designers hastily
regrouped and decided that it was designed for oncoming aircraft, a much
easier target. They even experimented with a version targeted for helicopters.
The patriot missile system isn't new; it's cold-war porkbarrel politics at
their finest.
What little I recall is largely from a long discussion in comp.risks during
the Desert Storm; see your friendly archives for more info. Other comments?
--
Craig DeForest -- `Before hitting "F", ENGAGE BRAIN'
Dave Hagood
|> [ deletia
|>
|> The patriot missile system was, as I understand it, originally intended to
|> shoot down oncoming missiles. When that didn't work, the designers hastily
|> regrouped and decided that it was designed for oncoming aircraft, a much
|> easier target. They even experimented with a version targeted for helicopters.
|>
Nope, it's the other way around. The software modification to allow
the Patriot to achieve a solution against objects in a ballistic trajectory
was implemented shortly before the Gulf War. The Patrior was originally
designed as an anti-aircraft weapon.
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|
David M. Hagood Martin Marietta Astronautics Group |
|
Voice: (303) 977-9657 When in danger, or in doubt, |
E-mail: hag...@den.mmc.com Run in circles, scream and shout. |
Fax: (303) 977-1530 |
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static char *disclaimer = "My opinions, not Martin Marietta's." |
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Wayne Rash
Back during the Gulf War, while I was at the Pentagon with every other
journalist in the free (and not-so-free) world, I had the opportunity to
track down and interview the original designers of the Patriot and the
subsequent upgrade. Those of you who got ByteWeek in those days can look
up the articles. Anyway, the short version is that the Patriot was
designed to shoot down fast airplanes. The radar and computer software
was programmed to ignore ballistic objects. For about 100K dollars they
did the initial programming that proved the capability, and then later
finished the upgrade. Oddly enough, the biggest stumbling block proved to
be finding enough programmers who knew JOVIAL well enough to do the job.
Wayne Rash
ra...@access.digex.com