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ABM sees through decoys, kills target

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  • ABM sees through decoys, kills target

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    The Missile Defense Agency announced today it has completed an important exercise and flight test involving a successful intercept by a ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack. The flight test results will help to further refine the performance of numerous Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) elements able to provide a defense against the type of long-range ballistic missile that could be used to attack the nation with a weapon of mass destruction.

    For this exercise, a threat-representative target missile was launched from Kodiak, Alaska at 3:04pm (EST). This long-range ballistic target was tracked by several land- and sea-based radars, which sent targeting information to the interceptor missile. At 3:23pm (EST)the Ground-Based Interceptor was launched from the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The interceptor’s exoatmospheric kill vehicle was carried into the target’s predicted trajectory in space, maneuvered to the target, performed discrimination, and intercepted the threat warhead.

    This was the first time an operational crew located at the alternate fire control center at Ft. Greely, Alaska remotely launched the interceptor from Vandenberg AFB. In previous interceptor launches from Vandenberg, military crews at the fire control center at Schriever AFB, Colo. remotely launched the interceptor.

    The target was successfully tracked by a transportable AN/TPY-2 radar located in Juneau, Alaska, a U.S. Navy Aegis BMD ship with SPY-1 radar, the Upgraded Early Warning Radar at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., and the Sea-Based X-band radar. Each sensor sent information to the fire control system, which integrated the data together to provide the most accurate target trajectory for the interceptor.

    The interceptor’s exoatmospheric kill vehicle is the component that collides directly with a target warhead in space to perform a “hit to kill” intercept using only the force of the collision to totally destroy the target warhead.

    Initial indications are that all components performed as designed. Program officials will evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test.

    This was the 37th successful hit-to-kill intercept out of 47 attempts against missiles of all ranges since 2001. Operational Ground-Based Interceptors are currently deployed at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg AFB, protecting the nation, our friends, and allies against ballistic missile attack.

    Post Event video feed will come to DoD Pool (CNN) at approximately 8:00pm (EST) via Streambox from VAFB.

    Awesome, I am very, very pleased with this. NMD is one of the few things that I unreservedly agree with the Bush Administration.
    Last edited by Lonestar; December 6, 2008, 14:25.
    Today, you are the waves of the Pacific, pushing ever eastward. You are the sequoias rising from the Sierra Nevada, defiant and enduring.

  • #2
    I wonder, would it be possible to make stealth warheads for ICBMs?
    "I say shoot'em all and let God sort it out in the end!

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    • #3

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      • #4
        Unilaterally Assured Destruction
        Unbelievable!

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
          I wonder, would it be possible to make stealth warheads for ICBMs?
          Something moving at Mach 18 is never going to be stealthy
          Today, you are the waves of the Pacific, pushing ever eastward. You are the sequoias rising from the Sierra Nevada, defiant and enduring.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Lonestar


            Something moving at Mach 18 is never going to be stealthy
            Why? Couldn't the warhead be coated with a radiowave absorbing material like that used by stealth aircraft? Most of its course will be in a vacuum. As the war head descends through the atmosphere on its approach to its target the material will be vaporized, but if it's coming down at about 3 miles/second that doesn't give the antimissle battery long to detect, plot the course, lock on and fire.
            "I say shoot'em all and let God sort it out in the end!

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            • #7
              Wouldn't it be the heat signature that stealth couldn't mask, as well as any trail of smoke? And how heavily it perturbs the air at that speed both before and after it's in the vacuum? I ain't no scientician.
              Last edited by Darius871; December 6, 2008, 14:00.
              Unbelievable!

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              • #8
                It would seem that the target vehicle failed to release it's countermeasures: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28077150/
                "Beauty is not in the face...Beauty is a light in the heart." - Kahlil Gibran
                "The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves" - Victor Hugo
                "It is noble to be good; it is still nobler to teach others to be good -- and less trouble." - Mark Twain

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                • #9
                  It saw through decoys that failed to deploy.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


                    Why? Couldn't the warhead be coated with a radiowave absorbing material like that used by stealth aircraft? Most of its course will be in a vacuum. As the war head descends through the atmosphere on its approach to its target the material will be vaporized, but if it's coming down at about 3 miles/second that doesn't give the antimissle battery long to detect, plot the course, lock on and fire.
                    (1) You can't do anything about the heat and (2) IN a vacuum, which is really cold, the IR signature cannot be masked.

                    It saw through decoys that failed to deploy.
                    Yeah, I heard through RUMINT(buddy who works at MDA) that some of them did deploy, but not all of the countermeasures. They still shot it down though.

                    Having said that, countermeasures aren't really common on Ballistic missiles. Why add the weight of countermeasures when you can, I don't know, add another warhead?
                    Last edited by Lonestar; December 6, 2008, 14:24.
                    Today, you are the waves of the Pacific, pushing ever eastward. You are the sequoias rising from the Sierra Nevada, defiant and enduring.

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                    • #11
                      Why add the weight of countermeasures when you can, I don't know, add another warhead?
                      To counter an ABM system?

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                      • #12
                        Nah, two warheads are more likely to get something through than one, no matter how much countermeasures you have, after all, the entire shoot is more or less scripted by gravity once you get the trajectory.
                        Today, you are the waves of the Pacific, pushing ever eastward. You are the sequoias rising from the Sierra Nevada, defiant and enduring.

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                        • #13
                          Decoys are cheaper than nuclear warheads.
                          You can make 100 warheads or 50 warheads and 250 decoys.
                          If you have 75 super-precise but blind ABMs, you'll have 25 warheads left in the first scenario and 37 in the second case.
                          Of course, an even better solution is deploying our new ground-hugging mid-range nuclear missiles on Cuba...
                          Graffiti in a public toilet
                          Do not require skill or wit
                          Among the **** we all are poets
                          Among the poets we are ****.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by onodera
                            Of course, an even better solution is deploying our new ground-hugging mid-range nuclear missiles on Cuba...
                            Don't you mean Venezuela?
                            Unbelievable!

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                            • #15
                              The interceptor’s exoatmospheric kill vehicle was carried into the target’s predicted trajectory in space, maneuvered to the target, performed discrimination, and intercepted the threat warhead.
                              What happens when these missiles are programmed to change their flight path, like how Cruise missiles follow topography to their targets?

                              Yeah, I heard through RUMINT(buddy who works at MDA) that some of them did deploy, but not all of the countermeasures. They still shot it down though.

                              Having said that, countermeasures aren't really common on Ballistic missiles. Why add the weight of countermeasures when you can, I don't know, add another warhead?
                              Well, if we can shoot 'em down when they travel "straight" without decoys, I imagine the next stage are "smart" missiles that can change direction with plenty of decoys

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