Originally Posted by
Tartiflette Fan
The missiles used in the naval AEGIS system are larger ( 7 m ) than Patriots ( 5.8 m )and obviously the carrier battle group with its Hawkeye AWACS and all the many surface radars has many many multiples of the computing and detection power availabe to the land-based Patriots, so at first sight it seems feasible.. Maybe its unnecessary as I'm certain the DoD and USN rate the carrier battle group as their most precious asset, and therefore anything good used elsewhere would be incorporated PDQ.
It's not so much about the size of the rocket, though the whole of the auxiliary equipment needed, including another phased array radar unit requiring a 360-degree view and the constellation containing several masts. I also have the impression, that although the Patriot system can do "self-protect", there is limited protection possible against a Zircon coming in (near) vertically. The debris will hit your ship anyway, including the exploding warhead.
The early Zircon versions didn't go Mach 8+, but the current ones do, which seems to be above the limit to intercept, according to Western experts.