U.S. Missile Defense Test Is Successful

(AP)  The U.S. military's sea-based missile defense system on Thursday showed it could intercept two targets simultaneously when it destroyed a cruise missile and a short-range ballistic missile during a test off the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The test marked eight out of 10 times the Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy's Aegis ballistic missile defense system successfully intercepted targets. But it was the first time the system knocked out two targets at the same time.

Rear Adm. Alan B. Hicks, commander and program director of Aegis ballistic missile defense, said after the test that the crew executed the mission flawlessly.

"Every test we do we take a different approach to further stress the ship and the system," Hicks said by telephone from Kauai.

This is to "give us confidence if we have to do this in the real world that we can do it," the admiral said.

A similar attempt failed in December when the first interceptor missile, designed to collide with the ballistic missile target, failed to launch. The military later determined the ballistic missile defense system had been incorrectly programmed.

The scenario for Thursday's test had the USS Lake Erie, a U.S. Pacific Fleet cruiser, learning that "hostile forces" were preparing to attack a friendly nation. The sailors were told to protect the allied country.

Then the scenario called for the Lake Erie itself to come under attack from a cruise missile fired by an enemy plane.

The Lake Erie fired both interceptor missiles from its on-board silos about one minute after the targets were launched.

The military fired the short-range ballistic missile target from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. A U.S. Navy plane fired the cruise missile target used in the test.

Six warships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet are already equipped to track and shoot down ballistic missiles like the Lake Erie did. Another 10 have the ability to track ballistic missiles and will be installed with the intercept technology by 2009. Two Atlantic Fleet ships will also have both tracking and interception technology installed on board by early 2009.

The military is focusing its Aegis missile defense technology in the Pacific because of North Korea's development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

The U.S. has joined forces with its close ally Japan to develop a new nose cone for the Standard Missile-3 interceptor.

Tokyo has been pouring energy into missile defense ever since North Korea test-fired a long-range missile over northern Japan in 1998.

[dperson626]

In todays world we must be prepared to defend ourselves against any and all methods of attack, and that includes missile defense. Only an idiot would ignore the threat. It seems that a lot of people think we can do, and are doing, only one thing at a time. We can defend against every imaginable method of attack our enemies may use. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[mjd420nova]

The defense systems successful test will do much to convince the North Korean government that we can't be touched and can also defend our allies against their petty attempts to upset the world.

[lincupps]

DGUTS guys!!!!!!! After all the hard work you did prepping for the tests, congratulations on another BMD success......Lin (FCC Lin Cupps, USN Ret)

[agnim]

Instead of working with ALL nations and ALL people who are not known SUICIDE BOMBERS to thwart the maniac muslims desire for nukes, the asinine administration is wasting time creating extra tension with countries who ARE NOT HISTORICALLY RECKLESS or suicidal!

If Korea, say, was that dangerous, wouldn't the Russians and Chinese be concerned about Korean nukes?
After all those countries SHARE BORDERS WITH KOREA!

Stopping the maniac muslims should be the concern of everyone; and the US is the most dangerous entity after the maniac muslims. Just look at what's happening in Iraq with the UNPROVOKED invasion?
Who else on the planet is doing those UNPROVOKED invasions besides a mad USA?

[agnim]

Will missiles intercept atmospheric nuclear explosions? LOL

http://www.nti.org/db/china/testpos.htm

[agnim]

"A country doesn't have to use missles to destroy you, simply set them off where they are and you get everybody, garanteed!!! Right now only Muslims want to do that. They think M.A.D. is a joke. ...
Posted by ToolMangler at 08:25 PM : Apr 27, 2007"

People are so un-alert that they don't realize that one of China's first nuke test (to send a good and CLEAR 'smoke signal' message to the US) was an atmospheric blast!

For days after the atmospheric 'nuke test', everything was being tested for contamination; because the clouds would carry the nuclear radiation ALL OVER THE PLANET to cause all kinds of slow-killing CANCER. LOL

So all this talk about so-called 'missile shield' is just DANGEROUS gimmickry, propaganda and dam LIES and DECEPTION to the American public.

[toolmangler-2009]

THERE IS NO DEFENSE AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONRY!
Posted by Agnim at 04:14 PM : Apr 27, 2007



I may never agree with anything else you say but that is the truest statement I have ever seen you make. A country doesn't have to use missles to destroy you, simply set them off where they are and you get everybody, garanteed!!! Right now only Muslims want to do that. They think M.A.D. is a joke. If there had ever been one scenerio that Russia could have used to 'nuke' us during the 'Cold War' they would have used it, and so would we. Radical Religion does not care. Thats enough to scare you spitless.

[feelfree1]

Re: "U.S. Missile Defense Test Is Successful"

Sure it was. We can always count on the Pentagram for straight answers, right?

[agnim]

"So, unless the people who fired the nuclear missile knew that a missile was about to hit it and detonated the nuke themselves, there would be no nuclear explosion.
Posted by obiquital at 04:03 PM : Apr 27, 2007"

You think that those who would fire nuclear missiles and know that they will be shot down will not take counter measures? Tsk-tsk

THERE IS NO DEFENSE AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONRY!

All this so-called missile shield is mere GIMMICKRY and propaganda, which can only deceive a nation with too many 'child left behind'!

Worse!
This defense GIMMICKRY, which could only be cooked by idiots and idiotic leaders, will only serve to cause arms race and INCREASE INSECURITY!

[obiquital]

Blowing up a nuclear warhead using a missile or something else would not cause the fission reaction required to cause a nuclear explosion. The missile would destroy the nuclear warhead's ability to detonate. So, unless the people who fired the nuclear missile knew that a missile was about to hit it and detonated the nuke themselves, there would be no nuclear explosion.

But at least you are using absolutely no scientific backing to justify your criticisms. I mean, using facts would just make too much sense.