Posted on 11/09/2010 8:05:31 AM PST by Gennie
(CBS) A mysterious missile launch off the southern California coast was caught by CBS affiliate KCBS's cameras Monday night, and officials are staying tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile.
CBS station KFMB put in calls to the Navy and Air Force Monday night about the striking launch off the coast of Los Angeles, which was easily visible from the coast, but the military has said nothing about the launch.
KFMB showed video of the apparent missile to former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Ellsworth, who is also a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, to get his thoughts.
Scroll down for KFMB video showing the launch.
Video here
"It's spectacular… It takes people's breath away," said Ellsworth, calling the projectile, "a big missile".
Magnificent images were captured by the KCBS news helicopter in L.A. around sunset Monday evening. The location of the missile was about 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island.
A Navy spokesperson told KFMB it wasn't their missile. He said there was no Navy activity reported in the area Monday evening.
On Friday night, Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, launched a Delta II rocket, carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB there had been no launches since then.
Ellsworth urged American to wait for definitive answers to come from the military.
When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia.
"It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," speculated Ellsworth.
Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.
Officially, at least, the projectile remains a mystery missile.
Missle launch - from the same folks who thought flying Air Force 1 near downtown New York City for a photo-op was a good idea?
Not us? Oh man you are a lost soul, everything is our fault, havent you gotton Obama’s memo yet? ;>)
The thing I remember about the night of TWA is Wolf Blitzer telling us to stand by because President Clinton was going to address the nation at any moment...and then it was scrapped. I was confused...since when did the President of the U.S.A. go on live television to address the nation after an accident?
Then George Stephonopolous running down the streets on 9/11 saying that “This is totally different than the TWA bombing”, yeah...center fuel tank explosion.
It was for the return of Hillary! From the pic on Drudge, she looks like the great pumpkin has returned.
Even if its not us, it will still be our fault.
Come on admit it.
You are on dial up and couldn’t watch the video....right?
Curiouser and curiouser.
It reminds me somewhat of what it looks like here in Florida when the shuttle launches.
Very unusual.
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LOL! Love that album, haven't heard that song in a while. That older music has that raw sound to it I really like. I'm gonna listen to it on the way to work this aft. Thanks.
Me, too.
At the same time I wonder if there wasn't a 'problem' like Ft. Hood on board one of our vessels. There are lots of possibilities, and few hard facts (speed, size, altitude, etc.).
I suspect that we won't be getting any answers soon.
Reasons?
It be embarassing if one of ours got launched without orders from the chain of command.
I't d be embarassing if someone else's got launched without the knowledge of our forces.
It'd be embarassing if one was launched by a malfunction or series of malfunctions, virtual or physical.
That means it's likely some bunch of yayhoos from CalTech or somesuch will take the fall before quietly getting really good jobs with a defense contractor...
Saves face all around.
It is a show and warning...China or Russia?
Hummmmm with SOSUS in the Pacific... I fail to see how this could be another nation state firing this off... unless someone has developed a boomer capable of running more silently than our people and equipment can detect. That has implications I would rather not think about, but have to recognize as possible.
This being said, if it was another Nation, it was damn near an act of war, who has the capability and the willingness to do that? NK? Iran? China? A nation willing to do that is coming from a position of extreme hubris, overwhelming power, or insanity. Have your pick.
Alternatively, if this was fired by us, then who ordered it. Doing a launch like that is NOT an easy thing to do. I know, my husband served aboard a Boomer in the early 90’s. Those candles do not get lit by accident. Unless its a test launch, those candles are ARMED. They are Nuclear weapons capable of taking out large cities at a minimum. They don’t get lit on accident.
So this was a test firing that no one is admitting to authorizing, or it was a MASSIVE cluster f**k that will cost many men their commissions. OR it was another Nation willing to risk all out war.
This is an eyebrow raiser for real.
Nope, not ABL. Also, this thread is worthless without pictures...all this fuss and no one had a camera?
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BreakingNews
BreakingNews
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Pentagon spokesman on mystery missile: ‘We’ve come up empty with any explanation,’ but ‘are not alarmed about this until we know more’
“That may have been a launch (show of force) from a Russian or Chinese submarine.”
35 miles off the coast of LA?? That isn’t a show of force. That’s stupidity and the kind of thing that could cause an over-reaction by our nim-witted CIC.
If (and that’s a BIG IF) either the Russians or Chinese have the gonads to be firing SLBMs that close to our coast, then we have just entered a new geopolitical age.
Just some kid with an Estes rocket kit and a couple of “D” or “E” motors...
Nothing to see here...move along...
Not even Puti would launch a missle from inside U.S. waters. It was one of ours. I’m guessing an anti-missile missile test, to get ready for the insanity coming our and Isarel’s way from the bloodlusting Iranians.
We used to flick missiles over to Kwajalein all of the time and they we supposed to land in the middle of the atoll. The site is now called the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
http://www.smdc.army.mil/RTS.html
“never fired over the Pacific???????”
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