Posted on 08/18/2014 1:05:07 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
After all the blather of this piece (typical of leftist “evidence”) we get to the substance of the argument: “Success depends on approaching the rocket almost directly head-on. Engaging from the side or back has virtually no chance of success.”
That definition of success only really applies to the SDI initiative (as a nuclear warhead dropping off course would still cause a lot of damage, so it HAD to be completely destroyed in space for it to be rationalized). But this definition doesn’t apply for mere conventional weapons. Indeed as the professor himself points out, a 10-20lb bomb is not that powerful.
So simply knocking it off course, as has been pointed out already, is sufficient to avoid heavy casualties. This combined with retreats to bunkers ensures a low casualty rate. Knockng a rocket off course doesn’t take as much precision as blowing it up completely.
It’s an acceptable system for the area considered (which is small).
One of the most unique men who ever lived, and a man whose biography I was rereading again this week because it touches my heart every time I read it, is John Paton, a missionary to the New Hebrides. He tells a story about some angelic care that he received in his lifetime. He said that one night wild natives surrounded his house, frantically dancing and jumping up and down in the jungle, desiring to kill John and his wife. Well, they got on their knees realizing there was no way they could protect themselves against these wild cannibals and they prayed.
Soon after that the attackers all vanished into the jungle, they were gone. According to Paton’s biographer, a year later the chief of the tribe became a Christian, and John asked him at that time, “What happened that night about a year ago when your natives surrounded our little lean-to there on the sand and near the beach and all of a sudden they left?” And this is what the chief said, “Well, because of all those men you had with you, we left.”
John said, “There were no men, just myself and my wife.” The chief said that they had seen men standing guard, hundreds of big men in shining clothes, with swords in their hands, totally circling his home. Did God dispatch a legion of angels to protect His servant? It wouldn’t be the first time.
It appears so, doesn’t it. Look around that site and your eyes will be opened unto the evil that is the Left.
Yes, Kwajalein, I had a really good job offer there as an SSO, but my first wife put the kibosh on it.
And my brother worked on the classified Bayesian-based algorithms that made it all possible.
Ballistics is a well-understood science. Computers make it easy, not just calculating the intercept but refining it as the distance closes. The closer the merging rockets get, the greater the accuracy.
Apparently you don’t understand how _fast_ computers run today. The one you are using RIGHT NOW is SO FAST that in the time that it takes _light_ to go from the screen to your eyes, your computer has carried out at least 4 instructions; in the flight time for ID missile, it can carry out literally billions of instructions.
“Doesn’t have much time”? meh, the ID onboard computers are _bored_ during most of the process.
“Why does it only work in Israel?”
It works everywhere else. Where do think it doesn’t work?
This is total claptrap. We can accurately calculate the trajectory of a cannon projectile and send one of our projectiles down range and hit the gun. And I do mean hit the gun, not just the area.
Current computers are incredibly fast and the calculation is fairly straightforward. The processor is mostly idle.
This is categorically false. As a missile officer aboard a U.S. Navy cruiser I was a witness to the contrary. And that was forty years ago.
For one thing, one does not have to "hit" the target skin-to-skin, although I witnessed that as well. One need only get close enough to encompass the target in the blast radius of the warhead. For an expanding-rod warhead that's actually quite a way. For another, one seldom encounters a head-on or a tail-chase engagement. Any deflection within those is not particularly difficult to calculate - it's junior-high math. And lastly, how anyone could insist on the impossibility of something that has been demonstrated repeatedly in the unclassified press is a bit of a mystery to me. Theoretically impossible? Then there's a problem with the theory.
I know how fast computers run.
seconds count when trying to intercept a missile.
“That’s the bad news. The worse news is that these rockets are being turned into smart rockets. The Iranians took the Zilzal 2 and turned it into a guided rocket. The third generation of it contains a homing sensor and a GPS. The Syrians can have this capability too, to create a fully guided M-600 rocket with GPS. Hezbollah probably has these,” he said.
The M-600 carries a 500-kilogram warhead, and a guided version of it would be a devastating weapon, Rubin warned.
He showed a photograph of Tel Aviv and the Defense Ministry/IDF General Headquarters site, the Kirya, saying one M-600 strike could collapse half of the area.
“That would change the skyline of Tel Aviv. This is not a tactical threat, it’s not harassment. This is a strategic threat. Even worse news is coming; ballistic missiles are becoming smart,” he said.
In the next five to 10 years, Israel’s enemies will inevitably arm themselves with GPS-guided ballistic missiles such as Scuds, he said.
What technology, if any, can defend against a guided missile?
Iron Dome, as well as pre-emptive neutron bomb attacks. The Israelis are sitting on a very nice, capable stockpile of thermonuclear and atomic weapons that any first world country would be proud to own. They are probably 4th or 5th in the whole world, behind only the USA, Russia, China and maybe France. But I wouldn’t bet the farm on France having a bigger cache of weaponry. If I were Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Lebanon or Turkey, I’d make a note of that.
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