The Cornfield Cruiser -- Defending America since 1954.
Posted on 11/07/2007 5:38:20 AM PST by RDTF
Air Force Lieutenant General Henry 'Trey" Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion today of a multiple simultaneous engagement involving two ballistic missile targets. This was MDA's latest "hit to kill" intercept flight test conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii.
For the first time, the operationally realistic test involved two unitary "non-separating" targets, meaning that the target's warheads did not separate from their booster rockets. This was the 32nd and 33rd successful "hit-to-kill" intercepts since 2001.
Designated as Flight Test Standard Missile-13 (FTM-13), it marked the tenth and eleventh successful intercepts, of thirteen targets in twelve scheduled flight tests for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program, a sea-based component of the Agency's Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Aegis BMD is designed to intercept and destroy short to intermediate-range ballistic missile threats. The mission was completed by the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70), using the tactically certified 3.6 Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense shipboard weapon system and the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IA interceptor.
At approximately 6:12 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time (11:12 p.m. EST), a target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. Moments later, a second, identical target was launched from the PMRF. The USS Lake Erie's Aegis BMD Weapon System detected and tracked the targets and developed fire control solutions.
Approximately two minutes later, the USS Lake Erie's crew fired two SM-3 missiles, and two minutes later they successfully intercepted the targets outside the earth's atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kauai. The intercepts used "hit to kill" technology, meaning that the targets were destroyed when the missiles collided directly with the targets.
A Japanese destroyer also participated in the flight test. Stationed off Kauai and equipped with the certified 3.6 Aegis BMD weapon system, the guided missile destroyer JS Kongo performed long-range surveillance and tracking exercises. The Kongo used the test as a training exercise in preparation for the first ballistic missile intercept test by a Japanese ship planned for later this year. This event marked the fourth time an allied military unit participated in a U.S. Aegis BMDS test.
MDA and the Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD Program. Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors of Moorestown, New Jersey is the Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA) and prime contractor for the Aegis BMD Weapon System and Vertical Launch System installed in Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers. Raytheon Missile Systems of Tucson, Arizona is the prime contractor for the SM-3 missile and all previous variants of Standard Missile.
ping
Star Wars saves lives.
I’m all for a great defensive strategy, but when it comes to nuclear attack, it’s always better to strike first.
Ping!
This is the system that the Clintons tryed to stop for eight years.
Ballistic Missile Defense Program ping and bump!
I meant to type pdf alert - but I guess pda works anyway! lol!
I find it interesting that the Japanese are now heavily involved. Wonder if Kim Jong is watching?
And she’d kill it on day one. To get America’s “reputation” back.
Ancient wisdom.
"If a man doesn't strike first, he will be struck first"
Athengoras of Syracuse
“Good shot men”
“Thank you Captain”
“Hey, where’d this jar of Jelly Beans come from?”
And so many people are willing to rush right out and put those idiots right back into office, their way of thinking and logic is just completely lost on me...
It isn’t about thinking and logic, it’s about feeling and emoting.
This is so significant.
Thank the Lord that He prepared Ronald Reagan for that day and time. Would that He would do the same in this day.
I forget if you are on my GNFI/Pro Mil ping list. Come read this.
The Cornfield Cruiser -- Defending America since 1954.
Isn't she having some cognitive dissonance with the fact that the government of France is now the hawk in the Middle East? That it apparently approves of the Bush administration?
Cool stuff ping
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