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During the first week of the war, the Patriot performed better than had been expected, hitting 95% of its targets as opposed to the 60% experts had predicted. But the system, which was designed as an antiaircraft weapon and later modified to shoot down missiles, is not infallible. Many of the Scuds that got through last week were actually struck by Patriots but not destroyed. Investigators say part of the problem seems to be that Scuds tend to break up as they re-enter the atmosphere. In at least one case, a Patriot struck the tail end of a disintegrating Scud, leaving the warhead intact to complete its mission.
Another surprise for the allied command is how well its pilots -- and equipment -- are performing at night. One concern had been the efficacy of night-vision goggles, which had been blamed for dozens of crashes over the past decade. These goggles, which are standard issue for ground forces, rely on the same light-gathering technology used in video camcorders to amplify ambient light up to 60,000 times. But pilots flying over Kuwait and Iraq had another window into the darkness. Affixed to F-16s, F-15Es and other attack aircraft is an imaging system called LANTIRN (low-altitude navigation and targeting infrared system for night), which illuminates objects with infrared beams. This system projects the view on a phosphorus screen in the cockpit. Objects appear as yellow-green shapes in an image that resembles a photographic negative.
Should the ground war start, the biggest technological question mark may be the Army's M1 and M1A1 Abrams tanks, the most advanced armored vehicles ever built. The M1 features a 120-mm gun that can fire accurately even while the tank is running over rough terrain, thanks to a built-in ballistic computer and sophisticated stabilizers. Both models carry a chemical fire-suppression system that can put out a flame in a quarter of a second and are shielded by armor plates containing nonradioactive uranium 2 1/2 times as dense as steel. But some specialists fear that the tanks, which rely on computerized controls and finicky electronics, could be undone by desert dust. Another worry: that their gas-guzzling turbine engines could run dry in mid-battle.
Working behind the scenes and above the war zone is the largest fleet of spy satellites ever arrayed. There are at least seven different types of "birds" passing over the gulf, ranging from sharp-eyed Keyhole photo-reconnaissance satellites, which can spot an object the size of a football from 500 miles, to the eavesdropping Magnum, which monitors enemy radio communications using antennas the size of baseball diamonds.