Just Spoke W/ Very Senior Ret. USAF Officer. Says USAF, NORAD, Etc. Have "No Clue" About Missile.

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[MindBender26]

Just spoke with old friend, very senior retired USAF general officer/pilot. Says his contacts, many of whom were his "boys," have no idea what Pacific missile is/was

As I was calling him, he was calling me to run my old network traps to see if anyone at the network desks in NY or DC have any idea what this was!

Data from video seems to be that it was large, ballistic, (not cruise) sub-launched. Course seemed to be trans-polar, so could have impacted in Arctic, Russian Far East, China, etc.

Current guesses... and these are wild guesses (some from the O Club at his lunch)

1: Crazy Russian or Chinese sub captain. No explosion because they didn't want one, or captain did not have correct codes for the PAL.

2: Islamic.......... ????? Demonstration?????

3: Hoax... but that seems way to far fetched.

Navy is also supposedly bat sh*t over this because there was no acoustic detection of sub!

NORAD scratching head ????

There may be an explanation, but no one knows what it was... or is!

[Cheburashka]

I’d say Mr. Putin is just showing off. Get a sub within 35 miles of LA,and fire off a missile to prove it (kind of like the acoustic device on SPUTNIK to prove it was there).

---

The Russians want the new START treaty ratified. If they did this they can wave bye-bye to that.

[BushCountry]

Every large rocket hobbyist files a flight plan in advance and informs the rocketry community months before their launch schedule.

It was 35 miles off of the coast, longer flight time than any amateur rocket, no flight plan filed, and as far as the amateur rocket community is concerned it wasn’t theirs.

To everyone saying it is a jet, you can see a large single orange flame shooting from bottom of the object producing the contrail. Also, the contrail is super large when scaled against the helicopter in flight (good reference point), which is several miles closer to the camera. The bottom plume appears to be at least a mile wide.

[Responsibility2nd]

Oh how cool is this!

I just clicked the TV listing

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Is on tonight. 7pm on TCM. Me and my precious bodily fluids are gonna watch that.

Yeeeee haaaawwwwww!

[TigersEye]

Absolutely not an aircraft or hobby rocket. I have no real idea but my gut guess is that it would take at least $100 million dollars to build and launch something that big from scratch. That would be with the most amazing budget managers in the history of bean counting. No one could buy the parts and fuel for it and not be detected either. Even in a foreign country.

If FR mil, ex-mil and engineering FReepers disagree I'll gladly accept their greater knowledge and experience on the matter.

[sionnsar]

It passed spell check and as I hit the Post button I saw it and knew I’d end up “red faced.”

LOL. Over on the Undead Thread we'd just call it a "typso" and a sure sign that FReeper darksheare was lurking.

[D-fendr]

Norad says it ain't a foreign missile or threat:

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, issued a statement jointly with the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, saying that the contrail was not the result of a foreign military launching a missile. It provided no further details.

"We can confirm that there is no threat to our nation, and from all indications this was not a launch by a foreign military," the statement said.

My money is on a contrail, the source for info was posted earlier on this thread. I'll repost my synopsis in favor of contrail.

Missile launch:

Jet contrail off CA coast last year (Mistaken for missile at the time.):

This event:

[sionnsar]

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

We have the DVD. Along with "Failsafe." Those times should not be forgotten.

[Darksheare]

I was lurking, drifting through the forum while reading the bad movie website Agony Booth.
Weird how that works.

[sionnsar]

Did you know the word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary?

Yes it is! It says, "a furasda an car a thoirt á" (very roughly, "easy to twist him")

(The dictionary is "The New English-Gaelic Dictionary," BTW. Look it up.)

[BushCountry]

You captured the wrong frame. Do a capture of a closeup that shows a bright orange light ahead of the smoke. Jets do not shoot fire without their after burners engaged. Also, if it was a jet why don’t they know from flight plans and time?

It doesn’t make any sense.

[TigersEye]

I think we can all agree that video from yesterday shows a vehicle moving from east to west away from the CA coast. If it was an aircraft leaving a contrail how is it that the first part of the contrail appears to originate in the west on the horizon? Wouldn’t the contrail of an aircraft leaving the CONUS originate over land to the east of the coast?

[visioneer2]

One theory: Earthbound asteroid headed for western hemisphere... missile launched in hopes of deflecting/obliterating before impact... Just a theory...

[A CA Guy]

Drug cartels ub a kevlar coated sub?

[Candor7]

I think the Chinese may have good reason to demonstrate an undectable launch platform.

If it was a sub, its long gone. The Chinese have been playing with the Japan Defence Forces in the same way, they are really stealthy, running up to the 20 mile coastal limit.They have not launched though.

I looked at the CBS video.It was definitely a rocket, the contrail was so thick it indicates that the fuel oxidizer was on board the craft, it was not an air/fuel mix engine.

Also possible it was a USN unauthorized/accidental launch.

[D-fendr]

Here’s the video that has the most close up (enlarged) view that I’ve found:

http://www.necn.com/11/09/10/Mysterious-missile-launched-off-Californ/landing_scitech.html?blockID=348833&feedID=4213

I don’t see fire at all.

Here’s the flight path of one jet that’s been offered as a possibility as far as direction and time:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX

[elpadre]

Wow! - that is quite a submarine. I hope during the time of lease the US was able to develop better sensing capability.

[D-fendr]

Any direction would be apparent direction. If it is a jet contrail, it’s apparent motion would be mostly vertical, it’s actual path would be mostly horizontal to the earth’s surface.

Here’s the flight path of one jet that’s been offered as a possibility as far as direction and time:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX

Here’s a link to the vectors/physics of it:

http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/

[Banjoguy]

It’s a common contrail. The object is traveling toward you, not away from you, and since the contrail has a long persistence, it looks like it emanates from the horizon, thus the illusion that it is a missile traveling away from you.

[TigersEye]

"My guess is a missile with a leak that had to be launched."

bvw posted this. It is one of the most interesting speculations I have seen. It fits in several ways. It accounts for a very big missile. It accounts for a completely unexpected launch and it very well might be considered too embarrassing to tell the truth about. It would also explain the contradiction between saying no one knows anything about it yet confidently state there is no threat.

[TigersEye]

If it is a jet contrail, it’s apparent motion would be mostly vertical, ...

Until it passed overhead.