It looks like two Saudi Patriots failed tonight…
Saudi Patriot PAC-2 SAM battery in Riyadh fired MIM-104C Surface to Air Missiles at a Burkan 2-H SRBM (Short Range Ballistic Missile) in the night between Mar 25 and 26, 2018.
The SRBM was reportedly intercepted by one of the SAMs (at least 7 according to journalist Babak Taghvaee were launched) but at least two of them failed: one hit a resindential area (at the time of writing the number of casualties/fatalities is unknown), whereas another one exploded mid-air shortly after launch.
Videos of the two malfunctioning MIM-104Cs are emerging on Twitter.
Here’s the first one:
#BREAKING – First footage of #Saudi Arabian patriot missile failure and hitting capital city of Riyadh after failed attempt at intercepting a #Yemeni ballistic missile. pic.twitter.com/w7UBSvmZTb https://t.co/6gWdjPrubT
— SURA (@AlSuraEnglish) March 25, 2018
From another angle:
Suudi başkenti Riyadh da büyük patlama meydana geldi. pic.twitter.com/qSwwowoVOU
— Son Kale Türkiye (@SonKaleTurkiye2) March 25, 2018
Here’s the second one:
This video shows the second failed MIM-104C Surface to Air missile was exploded mid-air few seconds after launch over the #SaudiArabia Air Defense Force Patriot PAC-2 SAM battery at Riyadh. #Houthi‘s Burkan 2-H SRBM was successfully shot-down by one of surviving five MIM-104Cs. pic.twitter.com/o5cbEtKEVs
— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) March 25, 2018
H/T @M3t4_tr0n and @jetcitystar for the heads up