North Korean Launches Put US Missile Defense System To Test

Spacewar.com ^ | 07/05/06 | by Jim Mannion

[garbageseeker]

The US missile defense system was put to its first real test Tuesday and Wednesday with North Korea's launch of a long-range missile and a half dozen shorter range missiles. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he was on and off the phone with top US commanders almost continuously for days before the missile tests. "I received the notification of the launch of these missiles probably within of a minute of when they occurred," he told reporters before a meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Pentagon officials were circumspect, though, about how the multi-billion dollar missile defense system performed.

"What I will tell you is that each and every launch was detected and monitored, and that interceptors were operational during the missile launches that took place," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

"The commander of NORAD (the North American Air Defense Command) was able to determine rather quickly that the missiles didn't pose a threat to the United States or its territories," he said.

[Cinnamon]

if anything the great leader came across as a paper tiger...

[garbageseeker]

I would like your opinions on this article.

[garbageseeker]

Your right.

[the anti-liberal]

Perhaps-

(but please tell me your Joe Biden paraphrase was just a coincidence...)

[Cinnamon]

I came up with it way before Biden check my posts from a few days ago...

[the anti-liberal]

Oh, well then maybe he paraphrased you?

(Is he logged on now, perhaps this is where he gets the few sensical thoughts he gets from...)

[the anti-liberal]

There should've been a smiley with that BTW

:^)

[BIGLOOK]

Negative MI ping.....

[garbageseeker]

"I think the toss up is whether they had more eyes on the missile or on the space shuttle. They had a lot of metal in the air," he said.

Great quote.

[garjog]

Just think if Al Gore had won and our missile defense capabilities didn't exit at all?

Democratic policies seriously threaten our safety.

[garbageseeker]

I agree. He would have finished gutting the NMD begun by President Clinton.

[garbageseeker]

At least this gives us some protection.

[garbageseeker]

Democratic policies seriously threaten our safety

Their ideology blinds them.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Tin foil hat time.

America paid NK to launch the missiles so they can practice using the ABM systems in place. Thing is, Kims long range didn't work as planned.

We are going to shoot one down. Question is, do we then tell Iran that if they try and launch one and we shoot it down that we will launch one of our own at them?

[garbageseeker]

Tin foil hat. That is funny.

[colorado tanker]

Not much info here. Sounds like the radars worked very well. Doubt we would have bothered attempting to shoot down the Scuds. The interesting question is whether they were preparing to fire on the T-Dong with the ABM system, which the article doesn't comment on.

[garbageseeker]

I think that they would release any information to the public they were ready to fire the ABMs from Ft. Greeley and Vandenberg AFB. The missile defense system was activated, so we can assume that they were ready to fire.

[colorado tanker]

Good point.

I'd love to see us shoot one down. There would be egg all over Krazy Kim's face but also on Levin, the Dims and all those "scientists" who swore SDI would never work. 'Course, Kim's got to build one that will actually fly before we can shoot it down.

[garbageseeker]

I would like to see the missile launch.