Posted on 03/14/2013 1:10:05 PM PDT by Saint X
“Whatever he does, the medal for doing it shouldn’t rate above the Purple Heart (and many other combat awards).”
Ok, I did not know that. And I agree, it should not be given a higher precedence than those.
I found this link:
And it seems like the inventors of the medal want it to be a sort of Distinguished Flying Cross ‘Junior’ medal, which I agree is not appropriate.
The medal shouldn’t have a higher status then a purple heart and bronze star. I think that goes a little too far.
It’s not an award, it’s a 201 file stain.
I know I cannot possibly be the first person to ask you this, but were the launchers trained to the east, or to the west?
The Medal of Honor will be relegated to being on a par with a Nobel Prize (such as awarded for “Global Warming”, AlGore, or Obama for doing nothing.....)
The launchers were at 85 degrees, so they were aimed at the location the booster was to fall into.
If they were 90 degrees they would fall back onto your head.
The booster runs 2.5 seconds and the missile is 30,000 feet and going about 3000 miles an hour. The booster then falls about a half mile or so from the launcher.
The computer had already set a gyro in the missile to the direction of the target. After the booster separates the missile rolls to the direction of the intercept point of the target. It then dives to the intercept point. The computer sends steering commands to send the missile to where the target will be when the intercept takes place.
So the answer is it doesn't make any difference which direction the launcher faces.
Ours were facing West.
Sort of vertical launch, with a slight offset to account dispose of the booster at some distance from the launch site. The vertical launch Seasparrow required extensive modifications to the AIM-7 Sparrow air to air version because of the 20G maneuver shortly after launch. One problem was that the frequency of the quartz oscillator was pulled by the high G turn, not due to any relativistic effects, but the centrifugal forces distorting and stressing the crystal. If not accounted for it could result in interesting consequences, such as the range safety officer not being able to communicate with it during the turn.
After booster separation it makes a 7G turn toward the intercept point.
It doesn't chase the target, it goes to the computed intercept point and receives its last command 1/3 of a second before burst. The burst command is the last command.
It has a 1000 LB warhead and is intended to burst within 100 yards of the target.
The burst is intended to be in front of the target so it has time to expand and become like a shotgun.
It also had the capability of carrying a nuclear warhead intended to consume a whole flight of bombers and any nuclear bombs they would be carrying. It is still classified whether they were armed with nuclear.
I’m with you. The military has tons and tons of awards for various thing, ranging the incredibly minor to the awe inspiring. I mean really, doing a tour of duty as a recruiter gets you a ribbon, why shouldn’t drone pilots (who let’s face it in our modern age of warfare are probably killing more enemy combatants than anybody else in the service) get something. Obviously it shouldn’t be considered one of the big ones, it’s not a distinguished anything or heroism, but they are killing bad guys.
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