People call me a “Russian Troll” because my political views confuse them, and that’s fine. If it comforts you to call me that, go ahead. I live in California and am an American citizen.
I was not “exited” about the few successful Saudi patriot shootdowns of Tochka missiles because A) most of them were unsuccessful (and there are plenty of videos to prove it) and B) Saudi Arabia is currently committing the worst massacre of civilians on earth right now in Yemen. Why would I be happy about the US allowing them to kill 100,000+ civilians through starvation and bombing? Why are you happy about that?
They shot down 4 out of 7 according to every report I've read
The Popeye is not a “cruise missile”, it is a solid-rocket fueled Air-to-Surface missile. Also I think you don’t know much about air defense systems because cruise missiles can be harder to shoot down than ballistic missiles due to the fact they fly extremely low and hug the terrain. The time available for them to be detected, tracked, and intercepted is FAR shorter than a ballistic missile and thus, they tend to be easily as effective at evading countermeasures.
They can’t shoot down the planes because the planes are flying 20+ km away in Lebanese airspace. Syria cannot just fire 300kg warheads into Lebanese airspace on a whim. Israel would cry foul and the UN security council would authorize another IDF excursion into southern Lebanon if they did. Killing a pilot (vs shooting down drones or missiles) is also a big provocation. Syria is smart enough not to do that but if IDF jets enter Syrian airspace you can bet they will try to shoot them down. IDF very very rarely does actually enter Syrian airspace, and when they do Syrian Air Defense forces usually do launch SAMs.