Always wit da negative waves, Moriarty, always wit da negative waves...
A miss on this will make us a laughingstock and harm our image globally in a number of ways, and the repercussions of the journalism that follows alone will erode our esteem. I hope to god we’re not setting ourselves up here ...
How can anyone doubt the greatest military on the planet?
As was pointed out on Fox and Friends this morning, a miss should shut up Russia regarding the ABMs being set up in Eastern Europe.
Our morale and self-esteem are not so flimsy that a miss matters. Practice makes perfect.
It's pretty bold, but that doesn't imply that it's equally risky.
In the first place, the spy-sat doesn't work, and everyone knows it.
I don't think anyone questions our ability to launch spy-sats because of that.
So at the high-levels of Chinese, Russian, etc military, I think this is just another test/demo of one element of one system (Raytheon vs. Boeing vs. Lockheed , NMD in alaska, PAC-3, THAAD etc).
Obviously, on a public PR and perhaps funding level, it's a whole different story.
But what about funding? If we miss, won't the brass just argue for more development on different systems, etc etc?
If they hit it, might some senators say "aha, we don't need more research?" I dunno. Interesting times.
We won’t miss.
We won’t miss.
Always wit da negative waves, Moriarty, always wit da negative waves...
I don't want to say "never," but the Aegis and SM3 system has had a number of successful "tests" of this very same scenario. If you believe the press clippings, we've done well at this before, so there's a reasonably probability we can again.
Granted, this is "real," so you never know what can happen.
I would hope that they will have multiple shots set up, so if the first misses the second might hit