Posted on 03/16/2002 7:50:28 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
An interceptor missile ignored three decoys and knocked down the right target over the central Pacific Friday night in the latest test of the United States' complex and controversial missile defense system.
The Pentagon said that the prototype interceptor that may one day defend the United States against nuclear attack sought out and destroyed a modified Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile launched from nearly 5,000 miles away in California.
"The intercept took place approximately 10 minutes after the interceptor was launched, at an altitude in excess of 140 miles above the earth and during the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight," the Defense Department said in a statement.
The successful intercept was the fourth in six tries for the program, which is known as the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Segment.
"Tonight's test is a major step in our aggressive developmental test program," the Defense Department said. "We will continue to pursue this testing regime to achieve a layered approach to missile defense ... to deter the growing threat of ballistic missiles carrying weapons of mass destruction."
Some analysts have chided the proposed $40 billion anti-missile system as being too complicated to be expected to work at such great distances and speeds, while critics both at home and abroad have warned that the project upsets the nuclear balance that has existed since the Cold War.
The United States sees the missile defense as necessary to protect itself against a limited surprise strike by missiles carrying nuclear warheads or other weapons of mass destruction that may be launched by a so-called rogue state.
Project officials said Friday's test was significant from a technological standpoint in that it not only worked, but it worked with three balloon decoys deployed in the area rather than the previous decoy force of one.
Donald Winter, president of TRW Systems, which is developing the system's BMC3 command-and-control system, hailed the unsuccessful attempt to distract the interceptor as an indication that the GMD project was maturing and was ready for more difficult challenges.
"Tonight's test further challenged the system by increasing the number of decoys from one to three, demonstrating the BMC3's ability to perform against more complex target suites," Winter said.
The interceptor missile was launched from Kwajalein in the South Pacific, about 4,800 miles from Vandenberg. It was armed with a non-explosive "exoatmospheric kill vehicle" (EKV) warhead that is designed to knock out an ICBM by crashing into it.
"The EKV separated from its rocket booster more than 1,400 miles from the target warhead," the Defense Department said. "After separation, it used its on-board infrared and visual sensors, augmented with the X-Band radar data ... to locate and track the target. Sensors aboard the EKV also successfully selected the target instead of three balloon decoys."
The Vandenberg rocket lifted off at around sundown and its contrail could be easily seen from Los Angeles in the clear twilight sky.
The target missile's dummy warhead contained a transponder, but the Pentagon said the device did not provide any electronics hints that would help the EKV find its mark.
The system was first tested in 1999, and scored a direct hit under tightly controlled conditions. The second and third intercept tests in January and July 2000 failed for different reasons and the program was delayed for nearly a year while the bugs were worked out of the system.
The fourth and fifth tests in July and December of last year were successful, but critics said the tests were too easy and unrealistic. Both the kill vehicle and the mock warhead were preprogrammed to fly into a narrow target area, and the Minuteman warhead carried a beacon that ground-based radars keyed into to direct the kill vehicle to its target.
It will upset Russia
Republicans are bad
Used to be: It will upset the Soviets. That's progress. :-)
I think that we are not seeing a new system being developed.
Much like the F-117 Stealth, the U-2 and the SR-71, we're probably just seeing an operational system coming out from a black budget into the light.
Call it a hunch, but I think that Reagan's Star Wars Project went a lot further and was much more "operational" than anyone with common knowledge lets on let alone knows.
Easy, look for "hot air" -- if none detected, its the real warhead!
The better it works, the less likely it is to be used.
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