Posted on 03/21/2007 5:08:11 AM PDT by RDTF
Lt. Gen. Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency director, today announced the successful execution of an important test involving the tracking of a long-range target missile by radars that are being incorporated into the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).
The target missile was launched today from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. at 9:27 pm PDT March 20 (12:27 am EDT March 21). The target was successfully tracked by the Sea-Based X-band (SBX) radar and two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ships using onboard SPY-1 radar. The Missile Defense Agency is developing and deploying an extensive network of land and sea-based radars to detect and track all types of ballistic missiles and to provide targeting information to interceptor missiles through the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communication (C2BMC) system.
-snip-
During the test, target tracking data from the SBX radar was successfully transmitted to the C2BMC system and the Ground-based Midcourse Defense fire control system at the Joint National Integration Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. While no live interceptor missiles were launched, a weapon task plan (intercept solution) was generated and simulated interceptor missiles were “launched” from Fort Greely, Alaska using performance data from previous interceptor launches. Similarly, Aegis ships tracked the target missile and performed a simulated engagement using a simulated Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor missile.
The largest radar of its type, the SBX is designed to track and discriminate small objects in space, which makes it especially effective for missile defense. It provides very accurate information to help direct ground and sea-based interceptor missiles in a position to collide directly with an in-coming missile warhead for a “hit to kill” intercept to destroy the warhead before it reaches its target in the United States with a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon.
(Excerpt) Read more at mda.mil ...
ping
ping - getting ready for Ahmena-nutjob
Not related in anyway to this other than being a missle, but there's a cool Google Earth image that captured what I assume is a test/dummy missle launch:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=38%C2%B013%2736.38%22N,+112%C2%B017%2756.59%22W&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=18&ll=38.22631,-112.298598&spn=0.00287,0.006781&t=k&iwloc=addr
Sorry for the sidetrack...
An 'off topic' discussion on a car forum - no idea who/how they spotted it.
Thanks President Reagan.
Is it just me, or does it look like the wings of an irplane were blanked out to make it look like a missile? See how the are swept-back shadows after the tips of the "missile"?
Also, how many missiles have side-by-side engines? I don't recall seeing one like that before.
The old Titan II was 110', though, so maybe it's the real thing.
"ping - getting ready for Ahmena-nutjob"
And don't forget North Korea...
Woohoo!
Could you hit a fast ball going 30,000 MPH ?
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