Posted on 12/15/2010 9:19:24 PM PST by smokingfrog
Analyze the data and make refinements.
I suspect the refinements would have been completed successfully years ago, had the left not gelded the program at every opportunity.
It takes time and it aint cheap.
“Program officials will conduct an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the failure to intercept the target,”
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Ya. I think they should investigate the lavish salaries and benefit packages of the overpaid and incompetent contractors
building this crap.
In one test it works.... and the next it doesn’t.... and then it does..... and then it doesn’t.....
And again. and again. and again.
What a waste of money. We’re just breastfeeding these leeching contractors with defense budget. And the Pentagon
mouth breathers go along with it to justify their jobs.
It seems to be real hit-or-miss (no pun intended).
“It takes time and it aint cheap.”
Yup. OTOH, a successful missile attack on, say, LA is quick and would be very expensive. As is blackmail thru the threat of a missile attack.
Missile defense, or lack thereof, will be (imho) the most important technological issue for our nation over the next fifty years. The offensive technology is getting too cheap and easy for folks who don’t care much whether they hit a target precisely. A nuclear weapon does not even have to hit the broad side of the barn to be an effective terror weapon.
You can blame every bit of that scenario on the liberals.
Ohhh... Amadinijad has the right to clean nuclear energy.
oHH... Chavez has the right to missile defense.
More hit than miss, and at what? Mach 5?
That aint bad.
We better get this working better soon, I get the feeling we’re running out of time fast.
Ya. I think they should investigate the lavish salaries and benefit packages of the overpaid and incompetent contractors
building this crap.
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With that kind of negative attitude, nothing new would ever be built.
Thomas Edison tried ... hundreds? ... of times before he made a light bulb work.
You understand ....
The GBI specs I found on the web say it is traveling about 3.4 miles per second. The specs on an IRBM I found say it is moving about 3.1 miles per second. Assuming a nearly head-to-head engagement, that's a closing velocity on the order of 6 miles per second. That's a pretty good clip...
Were previous targets only short to medium range missiles? Maybe the closing velocities/geometries were more challenging this time? Maybe they were trying countermeasures on the target - and they worked.
Regarding your unfounded and unsupported characterization of the contractors working on the project(s)... Have you ever worked on a large defense contract? I have. I have worked both in the DoD and in the civilian/commercial world. In my experience, DoD and their contractor personnel work just as hard as their commercial counterparts, for about the same pay. The main difference I've seen has been working conditions - office space, technology, etc. There, the commercial world has it much better. Before you go bashing people (defense contractors) I suggest you walk a mile in their shoes.
As for the contractors doing missile defense work... Remember, these people are attempting something (and mostly succeeding) that a lot of smart people said was virtually impossible. Yet they are making it happen. Yes, not with a 100% success rate... Let's just hope the idiots in DC don't cut their funding: "Do a better job - with less resources!" Defense is one of the few things the government is doing that it actually has Constitutional authority to do.
“You understand ....”
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Yes i DO understand. Waaay more than you know. I socialize locally with some folks who work at a local firm that makes
missles. A really BIG player in the missle business. And these folks talk proudly of their latest jaunt to Disney World or the upcoming Christmas ski trip.
when I asked one recently who pays for this hardware he shamelessly and apologetically said; “well... YOU DO”. I already knew THAT. I wanted to smack the effing smug look right off his face. It makes me want to puke.
I’m ALL for making it work. Unfortunately we now HAVE to make it work because we have sunk so much money into it that it would be a waste to abandon it. That’s how all these - “we HAVE to have it” - defense programs are run. With 150K Pentagon Colonels “managing” the program. It’s ridiculous!
Cut the contractors budget by 50 percent and tell them that when they make the system operational and RELIABLE they will get a “for-performance” bonus. Then you will see them make their “engineering” staff work like Chinese coolies to get it right.
This country is BROKE! And we’re just wet nursing these bloated defense contractors like newborns.
See above post. /Thanks
I have been saying this for YEARS: Metal storm cannons.
The closing velocity is more like Mach 23 - 15,000 miles per hour, or four miles per second.
That aint bad.
Damn right.
Try selling that line to the hundreds of people laid off from defense contractors over the last few months, or the 5,000 former staffers of the Joint Forces Command which Gates shut down. The first article is from May, and there've been even more since then. Obama is quietly gutting the Pentagon to pay for his union-hack and welfare-queen constituencies.
And what makes you think that performance bonuses aren't already part of all these contracts?
So we can use this system to protect ourselves from our creditors. ;-)
Excellent point, one that many people ignore, particularly those who WANT the tests to fail, and relish the opportunity to take a cheap shot at the people who give this country the tools it needs to defend itself.
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