Posted on 11/17/2005 5:34:16 PM PST by neverdem
Associated Press
HONOLULU - The Navy on Thursday said it intercepted and destroyed a warhead as it separated from its booster rocket during a test off Hawaii - the first time a ship at sea has shot down a multi-stage missile.
The guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie fired an interceptor missile and knocked out the rocket's warhead about 100 miles above the Pacific, the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement.
The achievement is considered significant because medium- and long-range ballistic missiles typically have at least two stages. Intercepting such missiles after they separate is difficult because sensors must be able to distinguish between the body of the missile and the warhead.
All previous tests of the sea-based missile defense system involved short-range missiles that stay intact.
The military's ground-based missile defense system in Alaska has successfully intercepted separating targets in five out of eight attempts.
After the missile shield's first couple of tests and the failures, I haven't heard anything out of the news. Does this mean that the program is progressively working out the kinks and is getting closer to a declaration of success?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Lockheed Martin Corp.-built Aegis missile defense system shot down a dummy warhead Thursday in Hawaiian waters in the sixth such successful, ship-based, intercept test in seven tries, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency announced.
The test was the first of its kind involving a "separating" target, meaning the mock warhead had left its booster rocket, the Missile Defense Agency said.
So now we just have to wait and see if this gets picked up and printed on the first page of the Honolulu Advertiser...
Good news for the US is unworthy of being printed.
Chinese build a high-tech army within an army-(15% Highly capable new toys etc)
the lefties want to bring our troops home and put them out to pasture. Seems to me we tried that before.....and next time we might not have a Reagan or Rummy and Bush ready to jumpstart back into reality..."You go to war with the Army you have"....oh, how DARE he say that!!!! /s
This is impressive news.
"How long before a U.S. President, with the approval of congress, will transfer this technology to the chicoms?"
Just after a vote to put some chickensh!t dummycrat in the Whitehouse again!
Remember Clinton and that mysterious crash of our Stealth Fighter F-117 over bosnia, and the chicoms just happen to be in the right place at the right time to recover it?
ping
Thanks for the ping!
Remember the mysterious crash of a cruise missle into the well known and identified Chinese embassy?
I still laugh at that. :)

Nice shooting!
I'm not sure what this means. The various missile defense system components have conducted many tests - with some successes and some failures.
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