Thread: Air Defense System - Patriot Missile vs S300

Originally Posted by M21Sniper

The PAC-2 system hit everything it was fired at during ODS.

Including our own planes.

S-400: Mach 6.2, range believed to be at least 200 miles
PAC-2: Mach 5+, range approx 90 miles
USN SM-3: Mach 8+, range approx 160 nautical miles

I have little idea on SAMs and their performance.... Looks like SM-3 has the best performance. However performance is just part of the equation here. How about cost to acquire and run the weapon?

I have no idea on cost of S-400 and its missiles (which are not yet produced massively), but S-300 PMU has cost of a batery of $91mln (3 launch machines, one radar machine, one command machine and two transport re-loading machines). Its most advanced missile has a cost of $0.5mln.

On comparison PAC-2 batery (I don't know what it consists of) would cost you close to $200 mln and each time you shot a missile it is worth $1.37mln - more expensive than a price of a Scud missile that is now traded by China.... hence each time you kill a Scud you spend more money on that than actual price of a Scud missile. Well actually S-300 PMU missile which is worth $0.5mln costs more than Scud as well but at least you pay less than while killing it with PAC-2.

OK. Back to the point. It means that you may have more than 2 bateries of S-300 for the price of one PAC-2 (those composition may be different).

With NAVY SM-3 cost is not really important factor - you simply can not fit more bateries on a ship - you need one but the best performing.....