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To: Yo-Yo
All I was pointing out was that the VLS that launch Tomahawks is physically also able hold SM-2s.

Well no, it isn't. The latest Standard missiles are about 6 feet longer than the Tomahawks are. My understanding is that the VLS tubes on the submarines are only about 20 feet long. Extended range SM-2s come in at a bit over 26 feet.

There have suggestions to test sub launched SM-2s that would be guided by a nearby Aegis, in much the same way a single F-111F could lase targets for several aircraft carrying Paveway PGMs but had no target designators of their own.

With all due respect there have been suggestions that the moon is made of green cheese, too. That doesn't make it credible. In all my years of commissioned service, including considerable time at the Pentagon while in the reserves, I'd never heard of the suggestion. Why would you have a sub launch a missile to be guided by a nearby Aegis? Why wouldn't the Aegis launch the missiles themselves? Having the sub do it compromises the safety and security of the sub itself. Every bubblehead in the place would have laughed themselves sick at the suggestion.

The idea is just about as wacky as the 747's 'zoom climb,' but there were many witnesses that saw a flare or other light rise up from the surface of the water.

Having served on Standard-equipped ships and having participated in missile shoots during the day or night, I can tell you that a Standard missile doesn't look like a flare. There is nothing else like it. There is a tremendous flash on launch that would have lit up the sky for miles, the missile itself trails a plume of smoke and fire from the moment it launches till the moment it hits, and they are unbelievably loud. None of the descriptions I've seen sounds anything like a Standard.

So in the end I suppose that a sub launched SAM is about as implausible. I find it improbable but not impossible that some sort of accident occured and was covered up by the Clintoon administration.

Well let's be honest here. In the end what you are suggesting is that not only was the Navy criminally stupid enough to test a missile in the busiest air corridor in the world, they were sinister enough to cover up the mass murder they committed. By my way of thinking that is the least credible, most implausible, absolutely impossible scenario of them all.

239 posted on 11/27/2007 12:50:56 PM PST by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: Non-Sequitur
Well let's be honest here. In the end what you are suggesting is that not only was the Navy criminally stupid enough to test a missile in the busiest air corridor in the world, they were sinister enough to cover up the mass murder they committed.

Global Security.org Narrangansett Bay Complex

W-105 is used for surface-to-air gunnery exercises using conventional ordnance and Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) exercises. Live firing of conventional ordnance is authorized in the northeastern and western portion of W-105. The airspace is also used for flight testing. Effective altitudes in W-105 are: W-105A/C, surface to FL500; W-105B, surface to 17,999 feet; W-105D, surface to 14,999 feet; W-105E, 15,000 feet to FL500.

I assume 'conventional ordnance' precludes SAMs.


241 posted on 11/27/2007 2:26:31 PM PST by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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