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.