Posted on 05/24/2006 4:43:46 PM PDT by RDTF
An interceptor missile fired from a US warship destroyed a short-range target missile in its last few seconds of flight, the US Missile Defense Agency said.
"It was the first sea-based intercept of a ballistic missile in its terminal phase," the agency said.
The USS Lake Erie, an Aegis cruiser that has been modified for missile defense operations, used a Standard Missile-2 Block IV missile to intercept a short range ballistic missile off Hawaii, the agency said.
The goal of the test was to show that the target missile could be destroyed in the last few seconds of flight either with a direct hit or with a blast close enough to knock it down.
"In today's test, the threat missile was completely destroyed by the combined effects of these two mechanisms," the agency said.
The US military has a ground-based missile defense system, the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range missiles. But it has no ship-borne capability.
A Pentagon report this week highlighted the threat to US aircraft carriers and surface warships of China's ballistic missiles.
They intercepted a *ballistic* missile at short range?
Wow!
key words: 'ship based'
I'm sorry but this report can't be true. We have been assured by liberals for many years that no missile defenses can work, that it's like hitting a "bullet with a bullet" etc. etc. This and all the other kinds of successful tests must be propaganda concocted by the vast right wing conspiracy....
Yes, I really am that old.
I'll never forget those films of the Sprite/Spartan tests. I was in junior high school, but mad about rockets and missiles.
I think ABM came about under either Kennedy or Johnson.
This article is proof positive of the "CAN-DO" American spirit that has made this country what it is today.
The program was blocked for the eight years of the Clintons. Nice to have adults back in charge again.
Must have been a lot of people holding their breath on the target ship!
Great, now lets sell it to the Chinese for let's say...
... 20 boxes of Chigars!
Located a few dozen miles from the Canadian border, the Mickelsen Safeguard Complex was the only operational Antiballistic Missile facility ever built by the United States. Originally envisioned as the first phase of a twelve installation defensive system, the Mickelsen Complex was designed to protect North Dakotas Minuteman Missiles from enemy missile attack.
Construction of the Mickelsen Complex was started in 1970. In 1972, construction of the additional installations was halted as the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to cap the number of interceptor missiles each possessed as part of the Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Later changes to the ABM Treaty further limited each country to a single ABM site. The Soviets elected to maintain a system they had constructed to protect Moscow, and the United States limited its system to the Mickelsen Complex.
The Mickelsen Complex was completed in 1975 but it was deemed to be ineffective against rapidly progressing missile technology and became inactive barely six months later. Within a year the missiles had been removed and the buildings salvaged. The Complex was transferred to the General Service Administration and it sat abandoned until 1991. With interest in missile defense systems growing in the early 1990s the U.S. Army again took possession of the facility. Although its future use is unlikely, the Mickelsen Complex is the only treaty-compliant ABM site the United States has and the Army is maintaining it in caretaker status for possible use in the planned National Missile Defense.
I just saw that Drudge has this posted
Got that right! Only problem is: it took until now to purge the smell of the Klintoons from the White House.....
How can this be when we're been told time and again that you can't "hit a bullet with a bullet".
ABM started in 1972. Negotiated and signed by President Nixon.
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