Patriot Successes in Saudi Arabia Hailed by American Crews : Missiles: They note that defense in desert areas is much simpler than in populous Israel.

Off in the distance, the great boxes were tilted at an angle, as if balancing precariously on the hard-packed land of the desert.

These were the Patriot missile batteries that have been the defenders of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, as well as Dhahran in the Eastern Province, since the shooting war with Iraq began. Unproven in warfare before this conflict began, they had added a sense of safety to Riyadh and Dhahran as the days passed and, one after another, the Scud missiles from Iraq were shot down.

Then came the tragedy of Tel Aviv on Tuesday night when a Scud fired from Iraq was merely winged by a newly installed Patriot and able to slip by, leaving three people dead of heart attacks and injuring scores when it landed in an apartment house area.

But the Patriots in Israel intercepted another Scud on Wednesday, and soldiers at this featureless site in the desert are basking in the glow of success--at least in the early going--and the feeling that these missiles, which cost an estimated $500,000 each, are proving their worth in combat.

“It’s about time,” said Chief Warrant Officer Woodrow Bevill, whose job it is to maintain the Patriots, which weigh a ton and carry about 70 pounds of TNT that turn the warhead into shrapnel on impact.

As he spoke, Bevill, of the 343rd Air Defense Artillery Battery from Ft. Bliss, Tex., was standing next to one of the Patriot launchers, surrounded by debris from the dozens of rocket launches. Like his commander, Capt. Pete Loebs, he was reluctant to speculate on why the Scud struck Tel Aviv, because there was no way to tell from this far away. But he and others acknowledged that the vast desert of Saudi Arabia, with its few cities, make work much easier here than in densely populated Israel.

And it was also true, said Bevill, of Natchitoches, La., that the Patriots had only been at work for a short time in Israel, that there could have been some malfunction in setting up the complicated system.

Bevill’s job is the maintenance of the rockets and the ultra high-tech control room where the missiles are tracked. He said he believes the Iraqis were firing the Scuds at various times during the night, trying to find a weakness in the system. Daylight shots were infrequent because the missiles could easily be picked up by satellite and destroyed.

“He’s trying to find us at our most unaware opportunity,” said Bevill. “We’re not going to let him.”

At this battery site, desert camouflage covered most of the Army vehicles and tents, with a volleyball court off to the side. A generator whirred in the background as Loebs, 30, described the operation of the Patriot battery.

He talked about how the Patriots lock onto incoming missiles as they enter radar range, about how it is up to those manning the battery to decide to shoot or not to shoot.

“We’ve had a couple of interesting nights here lately,” he said. “It’s a little hair-raising, to have an incoming missile. The targets appear and the reaction time is rather swift. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Loebs said that although the Patriots can take out a Scud high or low, “we like to take them out high--the higher the better--because it breaks up as it falls and the pieces that hit the ground will be smaller.”

The battery commander said his unit had fired only one armed Patriot during training and testing. “It’s sure different when you have something being shot at you and you have to kill it or it kills you.”

Like almost everyone else in the battery, Loebs has heard of the publicity accorded the Patriot since its success against incoming Iraqi missiles. He, too, declined to speculate on what happened in Israel.

“It’s a lot easier if you’re limited in what you have to protect,” he said.