Pentagon says missile defense test successful

Drudge Report ^ | 03/15/2002 | Matt Drudge

[RightWhale]

Does it really take a lot of rocket science

Yes, it is not simple. It hits the target within a radius of 15 inches at a distance of at least 2000 miles. This is not your average Iraqi Scud missile, which might land within the intended township after travelling 200 miles.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I was picking my wife up from her work right off the El Toro Y, the junction of the 5 and 405 freeways. As we were driving in the lot, I told her to look at the missile trail as it was glowing and she gets into red sunsets and so forth. I noticed a small white dot ahead of the trail. I watched closely and said "It's moving!". I pulled over to watch, thinking that it was the shuttle or something.

As we watched it suddenly 'expoded" like a firework rocket. I then thought "The missle test!". I guess it was just the booster separation though if this timeline is correct.

[RightWhale]

ICBMs that can not just fly fast but also dodge

The kinetic kill vehicle can dodge, too, and even better and quicker than the ICBM since it doesn't have to carry the additional weight of a nuclear bomb. Can't outmaneuver this one.

[Centurion2000]

That's what I said too. Now that the cat's out of the bag, we will start to see ICBMs that can not just fly fast but also dodge.

They already have them. In about 80-82 the Russians and the US (I think) both tested Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicles. MARVed warheads was the term I believe.

[veryconernedamerican]

imagine this bad boy deployed in the theatre and responding to local missile threats. a difference maker for sure.

[sheik yerbouty]

Very impressive!

[RightWhale]

It would be highly advantageous to be close enough to the launch site that the interception could be made in the boost phase. It would be a different system performing this task, not the exo-atmospheric kill vehicle.

[Thane_Banquo]

Looks like President Reagan's "crazy Starwars fantasy" is coming true.

Bump for the greatest President of the 20th century.

[krb]

Can't have a NMD thread without one of these... :-)

[Southack]

[Helix]

Calculus....Yeccccccch. Formulas OOOOH Noooooo. :)

[concerned about politics]

I thought the Democrats said we were wasting our money on something that would never work.
Guess the last thing they want is America protected from the communist nations, aye? They'd rather have us join them.

[veryconernedamerican]

scale down the booster, and modify the software, probably not very much and this thing could work for local targets even an easier intercept, i am interested to see how this particle beam-laser stuff if coming along. i heard somewhere about two prototype planes that could target human targets from a incredible distances.

[Bogey78O]

That is a good idea kinda.

"We were planning a surprise test. How were we supposed to know you would launch a satellite during the same period of time?"

[Robert_Paulson2]

yes.

Now I expect the revelation to emerge about our extensive particle beam weapons.

[phredbob]

Your acronym was close, but no cigar. The term is MIRV, multiple independent reentry vehicle, and the process had probably been worked out by the USSR in the 70's. By the way, this is some of the technology that the Loral corporation shared with the Chinese in the aftermath of a satellite launch failure and in the work up of other satellite launches of multiple satellites in a single launch vehicle.

The next thing we have to remember is the ICBM can maneuver or dodge but the reentry vehicles can't. The reentry vehicle is a shaped rock which when released basically falls in a controlled and predictable fashion in accordance with the laws of physics. Its path of travel is therefore predictable, since it is a non-maneuverable falling object. I suppose you could strap on some sort of finns or other devices which might affect the path of travel, but there is no propulsion on reentry vehicles, so all that can happen are minor course corrections to the falling shaped rock. These minor course corrections will only serve to move the kill vehicle farther off target and slow the the reentry vehicle which are detrimental to the job of the reentry vehicle, hit the harget and don't get blown up on the way to the target by slowing down and becoming an easier target for an anti-reentry vehicle missile.

[RightWhale]

The hardware that I found impressive was the Sprint booster, from the 60s I think it was. It had a warhead of some kind and was supposed to intercept incoming missiles after they entered the atmosphere and all the decoys were gone. That missile would accelerate to Mach 8 in one second; launch was not much different from a controlled explosion. Guns normally don't even get near that kind of muzzle velocity.

[tophat9000]

I saw this including the end when something blew up.

You could see the contrails really clear and that something was moving fast.

Then about a mile in front of the contrail there was a big white flash/vapor ball for about 2 seconds that then faded out, but I am not sure if it was the intercept or a self-destruct after the intercept

[finnman69]

Good call. I love when the black stuff finally comes out in the opens. It boggles my mind to think of the crazy stuff the DARPA boys are playing with in the desert.

[fire and forget]

My girlfriend and I had our dogs at the Huntington dog beach and we saw the entire thing from low on the horizon until its a spectacular disappearance. I knew then that it was a missile launch probably from Vandemberg and that it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen, but I had no idea it was a missile defense test.

If someone finds any images or video shots, they'll be very well worth posting. I saw some on a couple of local news channels but don't know how to capture and post them. The views from Phoenix and regions in a number of Southwestern states were also spectacular, but ours was unbelievable, having almost front-row seating as it were.