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.
Why is this taking so long?
haha...i’ll admit it...still on dial up here...
...so where did it (ICBM) land?
Get OUT! Are you serious? The Pentagon REALLY said that?
Thats what I was thinking. New geopolitical age.
There is an explanation, and I can’t think of any that have a good outcome.
“but there is no record of our military reacting or responding or scrambling defenses after it happened.”
That may not be entirely true.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/articl...ornia/19708951
Two Coastguard ships dispatched. I don’t wear tinfoil but one should look at coincidence when dealing with anomalous incidents.
...if it was an ICBM that is...
and i’ll answer my own question:
-in the ocean.
Except for one thing, the Chinese boats SUCK. They are noisy as all hell. I can’t discount it though, China is smart enough to develop weaponry underground where its development can’t bee easily detected.
Honestly can you think of any Nation able to build boats quiet enough we can’t hear then 35 miles off our coast?
There is video of this- go here and scroll down to the video screen and click on it...that is some serious THRUST.
That might make sense if the launch was from one of the 34 warships babysitting ObamaBaby. Not from our own shores. Who are we trying to impress - Canada?
Makes no sense off our own shores....by the way, does anyone know which direction the contrail headed...East? or West?
Vandenburg is used to launch polar orbit satellites - so many of them go North. I believe that now Vandenburg only launches shorter range missiles to the West.
When I worked there in the '60's we launched ICBM's. But I think we have stopped testing those - evidently we don't need them because Russia is so scrupulous in following missile treatys!!
Jack Cashill wrote a book about the TWA FLIGHT 800.
BreakingNews
1. Pentagon spokesman on mystery missile: ‘We’ve come up empty with any explanation,’ but ‘are not alarmed about this until we know more’ less than 5 seconds ago via breakingnews.com
2. More on mystery missile launch off Calif. coast: FAA tells NBC it ‘had not approved any commercial space launches in that area’ at that time 26 minutes ago via breakingnews.com
6. Pentagon, Navy tell NBC they have no idea who launched Monday night’s missile off Calif. coast. ‘We’re checking,’ frustrated officials say about 3 hours ago via breakingnews.com
7. Apparent sizeable missile of unknown origin was launched off Los Angeles coast last night, KCBS reports. Video: http://bit.ly/clwrC2 about 3 hours ago via breakingnews.com
diesel/electric are quieter than nuclear subs, but you’d have the issue of limited time under the surface before you needed to recharge the batteries, not to mention I have never heard of an electric sub with missile capabilities.
Does anyone believe the fuel tank “story” anymore? I was working for a defense contractor at the time of TWA and it was a known fact that it wasn’t a fuel tank explosion. Of course, what I heard is that it wasn’t a bomb, but a missile test gone very bad...
Its amazing the number of know-it-all’s out there....people are speculating without even watching the video.
It was a missile....all you have to do is watch the video.
Hello?
I can’t get the video to play.
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