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US shoots down dummy ICBM in groundbreaking military exercise

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US shoots down dummy ICBM in groundbreaking military exercise | Fox News

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency on Monday successfully shot down a dummy Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) in space during a highly complex test of the U.S. military’s capabilities to counter incoming missiles from foreign adversaries.




Two interceptor missiles, launched from an Air Force base in California, shot down the ballistic missile – launched from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific 4,000 miles away – supposedly meant to resemble missiles used by North Korean or Iranian militaries.

The first interceptor hit and destroyed the re-entry vehicle. The second interceptor hit a secondary object.
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Progress is good.
 
Yes, it is a step forward. That said until we can take out an incoming with a rate of close to 100% we are not there. Then there is the greater danger from another Nation that can lob hundreds of ICBM'S at one time and overwhelm our system. While I agree that we can use a interception system I would add that no system is 100% capable of covering the US.
 
Casper said:
Yes, it is a step forward. That said until we can take out an incoming with a rate of close to 100% we are not there. Then there is the greater danger from another Nation that can lob hundreds of ICBM'S at one time and overwhelm our system. While I agree that we can use a interception system I would add that no system is 100% capable of covering the US.
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If it gets to the point of all-out nuclear war, we're screwed regardless.
 
WCH said:
If it gets to the point of all-out nuclear war, we're screwed regardless.
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Thats okay, Ive already paid my membership in Vault-Tec, and my place in their shelter has been approved. :mrgreen:
 
PoS said:
Thats okay, Ive already paid my membership in Vault-Tec, and my place in their shelter has been approved. :mrgreen:
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We're going to sit on the roof I have our final beer. My eyes have seen the glory....
 
WCH said:
If it gets to the point of all-out nuclear war, we're screwed regardless.
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When we were designing the Star Wars system we were designing it to handle 50,000 lCBM's and the associated decoys and MIRVS. Then we calculated what 1% leak rate would mean. We should have built it anyhow. The leak rate becomes exponentially less the lower the numbers launched.
 
PirateMk1 said:
When we were designing the Star Wars system we were designing it to handle 50,000 lCBM's and the associated decoys and MIRVS. Then we calculated what 1% leak rate would mean. We should have built it anyhow. The leak rate becomes exponentially less the lower the numbers launched.
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Maybe we did build it? ;) I suspect China might.
 
WCH said:
Maybe we did build it? ;) I suspect China might.
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No, no we did not. There was supposed to be a shipload of satellites for that system. It was supposed to be the ultimate defense in depth concept.
 
PirateMk1 said:
When we were designing the Star Wars system we were designing it to handle 50,000 lCBM's and the associated decoys and MIRVS. Then we calculated what 1% leak rate would mean. We should have built it anyhow. The leak rate becomes exponentially less the lower the numbers launched.
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It must be remembered, SDI was half smoke and mirrors, half long-term research program.

At the time it was known that some of the aspects would never work. And those that would were at least a decade away from being workable. The majority of it was many decades away.

And it was never "50,000 ICBMs". By the time Reagan took office it had already shrank to under 25,000 (from a height of around 32,000 during the Kennedy-Johnson Administration). And then as now, it was always known that getting all of them was impossible. For one, not every missile will be an ICBM. You have submarine launched missiles, cruise missiles, fighters, and bombers to contend with as well, with their own unique problems in intercepting.

This was all known, but the way it was presented caused the Soviets to panic. They assumed that the main system would be LASER based, and started pumping huge amounts of their GDP into LASER research. The US on the other hand concentrated on parts of it they knew would work. More precise RADAR, kinetic kill vehicles, and the software to make the 2 work together. That is why they had a working prototype in 1990, and the Soviet still had nothing.

And today, there is no real worry about "tens of thousands of ICBM's". The tensions of the Cold War are largely gone. Today it is the "rogue states" that have most in the government concerned. Not the Soviets launching off 5,000 nukes, but North Korea or Iran launching off a few.

And we are still a long ways from this being an actual working system. Most of the country is still unprotected from any kind of ABM system.
 
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