Posted on 12/04/2007 3:52:23 PM PST by ECM
A US F-16 fighter used an air-to-air missile to destroy a sounding rocket in its boost phase for the first time this week in a test of a new missile defense concept, US spokesmen said Tuesday.
The system -- named the Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCDE) -- breaks new ground in that it would arm fighter aircraft or drones with missiles fast enough to intercept a ballistic missile as it lifts into space.
The aircraft would have to get to within a 100 miles of the launch site to catch the ascending missile in the first two to three minutes after launch.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
How about retooling the Phoenix for this?
phoenix would be good especially 20+ hanging off the wings of a B-52 making donuts for 20 hours near suspected launch sites.
bmflr
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Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
(Don't tell Senator Levin, he still thinks Star Wars won't work.)
Probably would cost more than using old Sparrows with new seeker and liquid second stage, or Slammers modified the same way. Range is about the same. Warhead is smaller but big enough to kill a ballistic missile during boost. Missile itself would also be smaller and thus you could carry more on that BUFF, or whatever.Might want use B-2 with internal carriage, and they wouldn't even know it was there, until it opened the bomb bay doors to launch. 100 miles from a launch site could be sort of "hot" environment for a BUFF to be loitering around at altitude.
wooohooo!
A B-52 wouldn’t be able to circle over hostile territory, 100 miles from a launch facility. This would work very well on a stealthy UAV.
This sounds like a layered defense against missiles, which I’m all for.
Now do something about the weapons that may be literally carried across our borders.
Let’s sell a whole load of ‘em to the Taiwanese....and use the Kitty Hawk to deliver them.
AKA ZapSat. HAndcrufted (Reworked/cobbled together) and on the airframe for testing in record time. Gotta wonder how many F15s are still around with a working datalink for the system?
Looks like we now have a proven SCUD buster/FROG killer.
bookmark
thanks, bfl
The older Sidewinders had a range of less than 20 miles. I had no idea that the X had this kind of range. That's cool!
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