US military set for new missile defense system test

[dogday]

The US military is set to carry out another test of its controversial missile defense system, this time seeking to shoot down a long-range test missile launched in Alaska with interceptors from California.

Pentagon officials said the test could be carried out between 1500 GMT and 1900 GMT Friday, but foul weather at the test site in Alaska's Kodiak Island could postpone it to Saturday, or even into next week.

Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said Thursday that it will be the second time that the system will be tested with all its operational components -- a complex network of radars, command centers and an interceptor missile topped with a "kill vehicle."

If it works, the kill vehicle will collide at high speed with a mock warhead in space over the Pacific, pulverizing it.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_military_set_for_new_missile_def_05252007.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. why would they use a missile?

tough infrastructure, too many warnings to our intel sats.
How about a nice sailing ship, visiting San Diego harbor?
what about a cargo ship with 1000 sealed containers?

the whole logic behind this system is about as smart as the maginot line. and about as expensive and counterproductive.

[eridani]

2. And it failed! I'm shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you!

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSWAT00758820070525

The United States scrapped on Friday a key test of an emerging missile-defense shield after a dummy missile that was to have been the system's target went astray over the Pacific.

"The target did not reach sufficient altitude to be deemed a threat, and so the ballistic missile defense system did not engage it, as designed," said Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.
The event was officially designated a "no test" when the target, launched from Alaska's Kodiak Island, failed to reach the defended zone, said Richard Lehner, an agency spokesman.

[Faux pas]

3. Makes you feel extra safe, huh? Wonder if it was made by

buffoons or baboons.

[Selatius]

4. Fine then. The Russians and Chinese will simply build more MIRV missiles to defeat it.

MIRV = multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle

MIRVs effectively diminish the effectiveness of an anti-ballistic missile system. Instead of one inbound missile with one warhead on it, think of one inbound missile with five or ten warheads on it instead, each one capable of taking slightly different trajectories to multiple targets.

Try stopping just ten of these coming at you. Those black cones each represent a nuclear warhead on a "bus."

[Lasher]

5. What a surprise.

And what a bargain, at only $100 million for yet another rigged 'test' that Junior's Maginot Line in the sky can't pass.