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500+ Injured, Major Havoc Wreaked as Russians Reportedly Intercept Meteorite with Missiles
Reaganite Republican ^ | 15 February 2013 | Reaganite Republican

Posted on 02/15/2013 2:51:13 AM PST by Reaganite Republican

ATTN MODERATOR: This article is NOT copied, but authored 100% by myself (and x-posted at Reaganite Republican) with the exception of one small quote from Russia Today near the bottom (duly noted and linked)

All orginal Russian info/data sources noted and linked at the bottom, as always...

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Some pretty serious damage was delivered upon six Russian towns -and hundreds injured- when a hefty meteorite streaked across the sky, approached the Earth's surface in Chelyabisk Oblast (region) of the southern Ural Mountains near the border with Kazakhstan, then exploded early this morning, cca 9:30-10AM local time.

Fragments fell and windows shattered as many reportedly freaked out, fearing some UFO apocalypse was unfolding before their eyes. The malicious space rock was part of a larger meteor shower over Russia, yet in a league all by itself: at least one large explosion was heard that created a massive shockwave, shaking buildings throughout the area. The worst physical damage occurred to a zinc factory, with was hit by more than one fragment and had an outside wall collapse.

Hospitals in the sparsely populated region were reportedly packed with over 400 people seeking treatment, though thankfully no fatalities have been reported from this most extraordinary event. The majority suffered cuts and concussions, but those who lost all their windows are said to be scrambling for materials to cover-up with, as the temperature's in the 20s F.  Russian meteor explosion

From the video (below) one can see the meteorite coming apart at the last moments -and only small-moderate fragments hitting the ground. But while some news agencies are simply reporting that a meteorite had hit, exploded, or disintegrated, unconfirmed reports from military sources out of Russia have the Russian air defenses hitting it with a missile salvo....


RT:

According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. 


A missile salvo blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers, local newspaper Znak reports quoting a source in the military. Regnum news agency quoted a military source who claimed that the vapor condensation trail of the meteorite speaks to the fact that the meteorite was intercepted by air defenses...



Pics/video at Reaganite Republican


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Pravda.ru   yNet   Russia Today   BrisbaneTimes


TOPICS: Astronomy; Military/Veterans; Religion
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; chebarkul; chelyabinsk; meteor; meteorite; missile; russia
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To: Yo-Yo
Despite.
41 posted on 02/15/2013 5:26:03 AM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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To: Reaganite Republican; RaceBannon

WOW! Fascinating. Thanks fot the post; ping.


42 posted on 02/15/2013 5:31:57 AM PST by PGalt
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To: Reaganite Republican
Think the Ruskies are working on a particle beam laser..I recall thinking the same thing a year or so ago involving a satellite..
43 posted on 02/15/2013 5:35:28 AM PST by montanajoe
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To: Reaganite Republican; RaceBannon; All

More commentary (95 comments) and a longer video segment...here...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-15/meteor-travelling-19-miles-second-explodes-over-russian-urals-500-injured-video


44 posted on 02/15/2013 5:41:45 AM PST by PGalt
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To: Reaganite Republican; RaceBannon; All

Very good compilation here...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9872020/Meteor-falling-over-Russia-caught-on-camera.html

h/t Hobbleknee @ zerohedge


45 posted on 02/15/2013 5:52:49 AM PST by PGalt
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To: muawiyah; Lazamataz
If you are going to ping Lazamataz, you have to spell his name correctly.
46 posted on 02/15/2013 7:06:44 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Dims are stupid, period. End of conversation.)
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To: servo1969
The core of the Meteor must have been steel to make it through the atmosphere.
If so then I doubt missiles would break it apart since hot soft steel resists breaking.

Lose Lose as far as meteors go, if you don't break it, it explodes. Mercy.

47 posted on 02/15/2013 7:19:42 AM PST by MaxMax
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To: RaceBannon

Yeah. That was one hot little hunker on the incoming.


48 posted on 02/15/2013 9:59:33 AM PST by Marine_Uncle (I'm going John Galt slowly.... But. Honor must be earned.)
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To: PIF
“they could intercept missiles moving at mach 14. or 4.9km/s.”

One report of the speed of the meteor was 19 miles per second.

49 posted on 02/15/2013 10:32:00 AM PST by riverdawg
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To: PIF
We stopped working on missile-based ABM systems because it was determined that they just couldn't work well enough to defend against a massive MIRV-style ICBM attack. There is no reason to believe that the Russians ever solved the problems that appeared to us to be insurmountable. That's why our attention was then (and is now) focused on space-based and sea-based systems to defend only against limited missile attacks from rogue states.
50 posted on 02/15/2013 12:00:52 PM PST by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg
We stopped because we were limited by the Anti-ABM Treaty, but the Russians were not. Their solution has been to use nuclear warheads, and those have been on station around Moscow etc since before the treaty was signed.

Now they are using an S21 variant with nuclear warheads - sort of a broad spectrum spray. They are more than able to take out any ICBM, MIRVed or not. We are that far behind.

We, on the other hand, were trying to effect a direct hit on incoming missiles, a proposition not solved until lately, and only good against a few missile warheads at a time - a proposition the Russians never considered.

Then again in the 50s and 60s, Russian workers wearing their white paper overalls used to handle refined plutonium with their bare hands, so they willing to accept a bit of radiation to save the Motherland ... and, not to put too fine a point on it, those that survived said they would do it again.

51 posted on 02/15/2013 4:20:20 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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52 posted on 02/15/2013 7:19:04 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Reaganite Republican

Yes, despite their diplomatic posture on ABM sites in Eastern Europe, Russians has both a working technology and deployed ABM systems since earlier 1970s. Even their simpler legacy theatre defense solutions has limited ABM capabilities. For that reason, there is technically a slight chance for them to hit a meteor. Anyway, it is really doubtful if a standard anti air munitions may affect such a thing much.


53 posted on 02/16/2013 8:47:38 AM PST by cunning_fish
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To: cunning_fish

Obama could skeet shoot a mitterorite.

54 posted on 02/16/2013 8:57:10 AM PST by CJ Wolf
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To: PIF
We continued R&D on ABM systems, just not deployment, after the treaty was signed. I did some contract work on this through an ONR fig leaf in the mid70s. It’s fantasy to think that Russia could stop a full-on MIRV attack. They don’t believe it so why should we?
55 posted on 02/23/2013 6:51:05 AM PST by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg

I have no idea what the Russians believe or not about stopping a MIRV attack. Only if the Russians were to attack us, we would need a lead time to deploy any putative defenses - they do not, since there defenses are already deployed.

Further, they are willing to take large casualties, we are not; they have elaborate shelter systems for the populace and full scale underground cities, we have neither.

Belief really does not enter into it. Preparation does.

Will their SA systems actually be able to stop a MIRV attack, will either side’s warheads reliablly detonate - are questions which can only be answered by putting the questions to the test.

We certainly have no SA system to stop a MIRV attack, they may have. Something is better than nothing - we have nothing ... AFAIK.


56 posted on 02/23/2013 8:02:59 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: PIF

The Russians freaked out when we announced deployment of defensive missiles in Western and Central Europe. Much of their current and planned ICBM force consists of liquid-fueled, silo-based missiles. These are just very expensive sitting ducks. I don’t lose any sleep over Russia’s current nuclear capabilities. Many of us did in the 1970s, for no reason as it turned out, because we vastly overestimated their military strength and technology.


57 posted on 02/23/2013 7:31:13 PM PST by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg
I was stationed 4k from the E German border in the 60s with 4 Russian Armies facing us directly across the border, equipped with 30,000 tanks.

At the time, should the Russian have come through the Fulda Gap, they were estimated to be 72 hours from the English Channel. ... our position would have been 15k behind their first rest stop ... Understand that this was after full tactical and strategic nuclear strikes through out the European Theater by both sides ...

Joe Blow GI had no idea what they would have been up against. The US soldiers were quite confident that they had superior forces to fend off (in short order) the Russians and their obsolete weapons ...

The Russians passed their comm traffic using one day pads, the US soldiers passed their traffic in the clear using explicit directions to their positions routinely, despite having secure coms.

Every time the Russians lit up their SA radars, we would look at the clock and count down 15 seconds - the time it would take for the first nuclear tipped missile to hit our position.

Later back at NSA, us poor slobs learned that we were a first strike nuclear target for the Russians strategically and a first strike target for the US tactically ...

The Russian freak out, as you call it, was nothing more than one of their ordinary power plays, which our current regime fell for ... again. They were never worried about our missile system somehow interfering with any launch of their missiles.

Today, while the Russians have many silo based missiles, they also have their latest and greatest missiles on mobile and sea based platforms ... those are worth losing sleep over, if one is so inclined.

Never underestimate your enemy, especially if he happens to be Russian. Never forget Uncle Joe's maxim: Quantity has a quality all its own ... just ask Mr. Schicklgruber.

58 posted on 02/24/2013 3:07:32 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: PIF

I agree that if we are not willing to use our technological advantage, then sheer quantity will often dominate. We learned that the hard way against the Chinese in Korea. You were part of the frontline tripwire in the 1960s. The only reason the Russians didn’t use their overwhelming conventional forces to overrun our troops in West Germany is they feared our nuclear first-strike capabilities. Many Soviet officials have written memoirs in the post-Cold War era revealing their immobilizing fear of our nuclear superiority. We were mislead by the disarmament crowd into thinking that the Russians were an unstoppable colossus when the truth was that much of their nuclear force was of dubious reliability. Penkovsky feared Kruschev more than Eisenhower or Kennedy, and worried that K was going to bluster his way into a military disaster that would destroy Mother Russia.


59 posted on 02/25/2013 5:00:24 PM PST by riverdawg
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To: Pollster1

I don’t believe these claims, but not because of lying politicians but because of physics. Not only do you have a big difference in speed between the rock and the missile, but a bigger difference in momentum. The rock is much, much larger and more massive so if the missile were to be launched at EXACTLY the right time then yes, it could realistically be done but it would have no effect because the rock would smash the missile to pieces and continue on its way. The only way to destroy such a rock with a much slower missile would be if the missile was carrying a powerful enough contact burst nuclear warhead. I’d say the warhead would need a yield of at least 500 kilotons. Nevertheless, we would need much faster nuclear missiles to realistically intercept and destroy meteors. Which BOTH countries should develop.


60 posted on 10/20/2013 3:25:05 AM PDT by BlackRockCastle
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