if the tome comes we ever have to launch for real, it won't be just ONE, it'll be a salvo...
Posted on 02/11/2018 12:33:22 PM PST by sparklite2
On the morning of January 31, 2018, an Aegis Ashore missile battery based in Kauai, Hawaii cued onto an approaching intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). The installation launched an SM-3 Block IIA missile to intercept the IRBM at speeds over fifteen times the speed of sound.
However, the MDA was also obliged to report that the SM-3 failed to hit the oncoming target—the second failure in a row out of three Block IIA tests conducted since February 2017.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
To think we had space based lazer defense systems when Reagan was prez.
Obama again ?
I think we read about a number of successes too, but the MSM is just hyping the unsuccessful tests.
Maybe this is really why we didn't shoot the Norks missiles down.
Putting in the infrastructure is the hard/expensive part. The control systems will get better over time without ripping the whole thing up for a new system.
To think we had space based lazer defense systems when Reagan was prez.
—
We did?
if the tome comes we ever have to launch for real, it won't be just ONE, it'll be a salvo...
>>>To think we had space based lazer defense systems when Reagan was prez<<< (It’s Laser)...
Uh, no.
The Soviet Union may have thought so though...
Correct, not even in Star Trek did they have perfect defenses, only a fool(this articles author?) would believe that we or anyone else had a perfect system.
Esteemed physicists in the 1950’s claimed it was impossible to hit a Mach one missile with another missile.
We kept working on it and now it’s quite routine.
The more we test, the more we learn and the better we’ll become.
Warheads have not, up to this point, needed to maneuver in flight. However, since the interceptor must strike the warhead, it would not be a problem to program maneuvers. They don’t even have to be big maneuvers. A few inches either way is more than sufficient.
So, like stealth technology, we spend billions of dollars developing solutions that can be easily overcome. (In the case of stealth, with networked radars.) It’s not about developing effective hardware, it’s about spending the money and who gets to have the money.
100%
no we didn’t !
There were some experimental systems, nothing in or out of the atmosphere. At that time nothing really out of the lab.
Anyway right now that work is paying off, we’re a few years from having them as the regular “kit” on ships.
“To think we had space based lazer defense systems when Reagan was prez.”
I fear Generals who are still planning the prior war.
Re: “the interceptor must strike the warhead”
I was not aware of that.
I would think that any contact, with any part of the missile, during any part of the flight, would put the warhead into a high speed self-destructive gyration.
In other words, how would a warhead that is tumbling at hundreds of RPM be able to function normally?
“America’s Missile Defense Systems: The Ultimate Paper Tiger?”
The experience of the Israelis suggests otherwise, and we share technology with them.
“In other words, how would a warhead that is tumbling at hundreds of RPM be able to function normally?”
Warheads in flight are stable projectiles. The interceptor is a guided object with sufficient mass to destroy the warhead as their impact speeds are very high. The detonation of a nuclear weapon relies on some very precise things happening exactly on time, so the impact causes the weapon to fly apart without detonating.
It would be no great technical feat to make the weapon maneuver. A few inches would do it. (The 1950’s approach was to make the interceptor another nuclear weapon with a proximity detonator or a timer.)
That’s why we test things, to see what works and what doesn’t. I don’t know if the chemical laser, on a 747 is operational, but this isn’t the only thing the MDA is working on.
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