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.
Pentagon has no clue who launched this missile
Not buying it.
No sale.
see post 116. wtf?
* Did the missile leave a white smoke plume, starting from the sea? (This would indicate solid fuel as is used on Trident SLBMs. Whereas a plume visible only at higher altitude would tend to indicate liquid fuel).
* Was there any restricted air space near the presumed launch area? Launches such as this are not generally done without “Notice To Airmen.” (Note: One FR Member has already presented some information indicated that there wasn’t).
* By treaty, SLBM, ICBM and Sat launches are announced ahead of time so other nations do not assume the launch is hostile. This would be particularly important for something starting near the West coast of CONUS and tracking out to sea.
Any chance this could be our military trying to shoot down an errant coconut that may have fallen from a tree in India? /sar
FOX New just covered this mystery launch at 12:25 PM.
Do you mean the Club-K Missile System?
http://rt.com/news/sci-tech/club-k-missile-systems/
Per Steve Centani at the Pentagon-no one knows who launched the missle- everyone is denying it.
It’s now being covered by all the cable stations.
I fully agree, as a Canadian who’s country thinks everyone is their friend (deathwish thinking), this greatly concerns me too, and I am constantly fearing for my southern brothers and sisters and the current state of things, this does nothing to alleviate any fears.
I will say though that I would be very surprised if this was another nation launching that close to US soil. That would be the same as holding a killer poker hand and showing your cards to everyone at the table. You’d be warning everyone you can get close enough to inflict massive damage, but now they are alerted and can take more percautions. If an enemy nation were to do something like that I think they would just launch a surprise attack period.
I’m not a national defense expert, just spent time as a soldier, but from a soldier’s point of view, that would make the most sense.
What doesn’t make any sense, is how come nobody seems to know what the h#ll this thing is?
Me neither. a sub launch would be my guess???
Hey - AOL pulled (censored?) your story.
Boomers do NOT malfunction like that. Those things do NOT get launched by accident. If one malfunctioned it would take out the boat before it would get launched. It was launched successfully, which means all the procedures required TO launch it were met successful. That right there precludes a malfunction. You can’t just hit a button and have one take off. Shoot, you have to have the boat in the right place and depth to make it light once out of the water itself. Everyone ON the boat would have been utterly aware of what was going on. Shoot, even the whales in the area knew something got launched, those darned things are LOUD and literally shoves the boats deeper into the water they leave such such force.
No, this was not a malfunction or an accidental launch. The boat which launched it did so deliberately.
If it is one of ours, it was either launched deliberately under orders, or it was a rogue launch with everything THAT implies... including a remaining supply of candles to light.
I see nothing good here. The pentagon is giving me the heebeejeebies....
Now I fully understand that our undergraduate nincompoop in chief is gallivanting around the globe, and can't be bothered this kind of stuff....you know...that "phone call at 3 am stuff," but where the he&& is the VP? I mean, we may have just had an unknown enemy launch a mock nuclear attack on the US from US territorial waters. I sure hope that we get some answers soon, because if it wasn't our guys this is going to get real ugly.
Chickety China? Muzzies test launching an EMP delivery vehicle from a freighter?
You bet...
This is really unbelievable.
From the footage Ive seen, it came right OUT of the ocean blazing all the way...check the video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/national/main7036716.shtml
LMAO!!!
All of the VA. UFO sightings and this is odd tho....
Absolutely correct.
I was about to ping you- pretty astonishing, isn’t it?
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