September 19, 2008: South Korea
has begun installing a billion dollars worth of second hand German Patriot
anti-aircraft missiles. The Germans don't need as many Patriot batteries since
the Cold War ended in 1991. So they sold twelve batteries, and several hundred
PAC 2 missiles, to South Korea, who want to improve their defenses against
North Korean ballistic missiles. The PAC 2 can knock down the SCUD type
missiles that North Korea has hundreds of.
Each Patriot battery is manned by about a hundred troops, and contains a
radar, plus four launchers. A Patriot launcher can hold four PAC 2s, each of
which weighs about a ton and has a range of 70 kilometers against missiles or
aircraft.
