>>Good question. Here’s another: Why, in a sky full of aircraft, weren’t there scores of pilots reporting a missile launch or other strange phenomenon to ATC?<<
Yessir, that is a good question. You are the first to raise an iota of doubt in my mind.
Thank you for your open-mindedness. Here are some more questions:
Where was the sonic boom? An SLBM moves through Mach 1 less than a minute after launch (a Minuteman land-based ICBM does so before it reaches 10,000 feet)...were there reports of sonic booms in the LA area at around 5:15 on the 8th?
Where is the stage separation? Chinese SLBMs are two stage, ours are three stage. I’m not sure about the Trident, but the Minuteman lights the second stage two minutes into its flight...yet this bird never separates nor is there a plume from a stage ejected before the video begins.
Why is a weapon designed to reach a target thousands of miles away in 10-15 minutes is still visible from Long Beach (in the same small portion of the sky) several minutes after launch?
I understand why people think this is a missile. That’s what it looked like to me at first...but it wasn’t a missile. Not unless it was one specially designed to stay below Mach 1 and hang in the sky for several minutes.
Thanks for listening. It’s sad there are peopl on this thread treating each other like dirt over this.