I guess the Libs will have to come up with another reason Strategic Missile Defense will never work. You would think they'd get tired of being so very wrong on this subject. It's called RESEARCH morons! Never say never!
Posted on 08/29/2007 4:43:24 PM PDT by Reaganesque
August 28, 2007 The Cold War might be over, but the underlying strategy that arose with Reagan’s Star Wars missile defense program in the 1980s lives on as the threat of long-range missile attack remains a global concern. Lockheed Martin have just announced successful testing of part of the Missile Defense Agency's “Multiple Kill Vehicle” program designed to be a single-launch platform to neutralize an entire fleet of incoming enemy missiles.
Before Reagan’s Star Wars speech in 1983, America’s missile defense system consisted mainly of the simple and scary concept of Mutual Assured Destruction – you bomb us, we’ll bomb you before yours land. Since that point a number of more sophisticated missile defense programs have been launched – and with each of these has come a series of more sophisticated missile attack techniques.
Once America had successfully developed the ability to shoot a missile out of the sky, military researchers quickly realized that a clever enemy would simply have to launch one nuclear missile together with a bunch of decoy missiles in order to fool or overwhelm the missile defense system into uselessness.
To combat this simple tactic, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) came up with the idea of a “Multiple Kill Vehicle,” or MKV, a large rocket that could be launched at a fleet of incoming missiles in their mid-course stage of flight. Upon approaching the swarm of attacking missiles at thousands of miles per hour, a number of smaller kill vehicles would be dispatched from the MKV to identify and destroy all credible threat objects identified by an onboard sensor system.
It is thus an economical single-launch platform to counter a number of simultaneous threats approaching from the same direction – and economics is an important factor in missile defense theory; with the defense systems frequently being much more expensive to deploy than the missiles themselves, there is a theoretical possibility that the defense systems could be overcome by a wealthy opponent willing to continue launching projectiles until the cost of the defense systems overwhelmed the target country’s resources.
Lockheed Martin, in charge of the MKV development effort on behalf of the MDA, recently announced the successful testing of a key element of the MKV payload at Edwards Air Force Base's National Hover Test Facility. An extended duration demonstration of the carrier vehicle's divert and attitude control system, built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, met performance objectives established by the MDA.
During an engagement with the enemy, this high-performance propulsion system maneuvers the carrier vehicle and its cargo of kill vehicles into the threat complex to intercept the targets. With tracking data from the Ballistic Missile Defense System and its own heat detecting sensor, the carrier vehicle dispenses and guides the kill vehicles to destroy targets in the complex using their own individual maneuver rockets.
The Multiple Kill Vehicle adds volume kill capability for the war fighter and is a force multiplier for all of the land- and sea-based weapons of the integrated mid-course missile defense system. In the event of an enemy launch, a single interceptor equipped with this payload destroys not only the re-entry vehicle but also all credible threat objects; including countermeasures the enemy deploys to try to spoof the defenses. This many-on-many strategy eliminates the need for extensive pre-launch intelligence while leveraging the Ballistic Missile Defense System's discrimination capability, ensuring a robust and affordable solution to emerging threats.
I guess the Libs will have to come up with another reason Strategic Missile Defense will never work. You would think they'd get tired of being so very wrong on this subject. It's called RESEARCH morons! Never say never!
kewl!
Cool!
Bummer for Raytheon
They should also try to work more on making a ground-based laser that has the range to shoot down missiles far away and base them on islands in the Pacific Ocean, and if the United States owns any, islands in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. That method could eventually be cheaper than this missile-shooting-down-missile one, so even if a very “wealthy opponent” lobs missile after missile this way, the cost of destroying them could be cheaper than the cost to the foreign power to shoot the missiles.
This is all well and good but we still need more boots on the ground. Since Clinton cut so much of our military, from 18 to 10 divisions, we don’t have enough and our military strength is really stretched.
Do you mean a “Laser?” Perhaps we could get the Navy to arm sharks with them...then we wouldn’t need islands *snicker*
Missile technology.....ping
Interesting development....ping
"Hello, Lockheed Martin? They just launched another batch of ICBMs at us, and we need to buy some more MKV missiles ASAP!!! Can you deliver - oh, let's say 8 dozen - within the next 15 seconds?...What? You say we've already exceeded our credit limit????!!!!!"
Many thanks for finally coaxing me to join in.
For starters - ground based lasers - way cool,
would remind me of the original “Defenders”
arcade game with the track ball.
As for your tagline and offer for comment,
the New Testament usually has its roots in
something from the Old...
Look at Leviticus 17:13-14 for a possible
explanation...
13 ¶ And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.
14 ¶ For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
Again thanks for nudging me to dip my foot in... The water
is just fine...
Oops, figures... screwed up my first post.
Not “Defender” but “Missle Command”.
Check out the 80’s video arcade websites
for this. Could make for an interesting
future defense strategy.
About 1985 he told the Politburo that the Communist Party must defeat the Strategic Defense Initiative through propaganda in the West, technological innovation at home and a screaming bloody edge technologically superior rearmament of the Red forces. If this could not be accomplished, Ogarkov said, the Soviet Union was over.
THANK GOD FOR SDI!!!
Rather looks to me that Ronald Reagan successfully aborted a nuclear war. The Liberals still hate him for it.
The cost of these weapons has to be weighed against the cost of needing them and not having them. Here, that would be millions of Americans vaporized and our country significantly degraded.
When you primary strategy is deterrence, perfection is a military that never goes to war. It's weapons like the old B-36 that never fire a shot in anger. Using weapons implies deterrence failed. I, for one, would be happy to fund weapons that win wars by preventing an opponent from even starting one.
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