A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
This weekend, a Ricochet Member alerted me to this awe-inspiring video of a target missile lifting off from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands:
As to what's actually going on in the video, our Member, who designed the guidance system for the target missile, provides this explanation:
The video shows the target missile lifting off from the Kwajalein Atoll, as if an adversary had launched an attack against the United States. The target missile is called the LV-2, which is an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) made from a refurbished Trident C4 with new electronics and payload, designed to mimic a class of enemy missile that can carry nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons. You see one near shot of the liftoff and then a replay of the same thing from farther away. After the LV-2 leaves the frame, it flies higher and faster for several minutes until it leaves the atmosphere and reaches suborbital flight. After all its propellant is expended, it releases a mock nuke/bio/chem warhead. This warhead is called the "threat".
The video then skips forward about 10 minutes in time, past the part where the satellites detect the launch, the radar station on Wake Island activates to track the threat missile in flight, and forwards the trajectory data to the destroyer USS O'Kane, equipped with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. No doubt in a real war scenario this would also alert the Pentagon and the President about the launch detection, and the President would decide on a course of retaliatory action.
The O'Kane was assigned to defend a large swath of open ocean west of Hawaii, as if it were part of the United States or Europe. Her sailors were on alert but didn't know when the mock attack would come. After receiving the threat trajectory data from Wake, they selected an SM-3 missile from their magazine, computed an intercept course, and waited for the threat to come into range. The video resumes on the deck of the ship just as the SM-3 leaps out of its launch tube into the sky. The huge vertical plume of fire you see in the first slow motion shot is the hot rocket exhaust from the missile as it is vented from below the deck--the exhaust is piped to the side and back out the top because they can't send it down out the bottom of the ship. You can then see the bridge of the O'Kane and the bright glare of the missile as it passes through the cloud layer.
The video skips ahead a few minutes again, just as the SM-3's kinetic warhead is performing its final maneuvers, firing thrusters and homing in on the threat warhead. You see several different cuts of infrared footage of the intercept filmed from various aircraft, with a bright splash of extremely hot debris as the threat is obliterated into plasma by the very force of collision. The last clip is a representation of what the interceptor's sensor "sees" in the moments before impact (I doubt they released the real footage for classification reasons). In the final frame you can see the outline of the threat warhead as it is about to meet its end.
The total distance between the threat launch and the intercept was about 2,300 miles. This test was very significant, because the SM-3 was launched using data received remotely, rather than from the O'Kane's own radar system. This allowed them to launch much sooner, and resulted in the longest range intercept yet by an Aegis destroyer.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
In a world where Pakistan, North Korea and, soon, Iran, have nuclear weapons, I simply cannot fathom the insanity of Barack Obama and the Democrats' desire to de-fund missile defense technology.
Dec '10
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
I used to work at Lockheed Missile & Space Co. back in the day (1978-1980) when they were developing ballistic missile interception technology. Think of how far technology has advanced in the last 30 years and you can imagine how visionary the developers were back then to believe that their concepts would eventually become practical and deployable.
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
That's a warm, fuzzy feeling if ever there was one.
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
Original comment double posted, so I deleted the double post and wrote this. I think my computer stutters.
Edited on May 9, 2011 at 3:46pmAug '10
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
I want one ! And ten for my friend Bibi.
Thanks, glad we get to see this , but with the 72 nd version just getting out on OBL, what's the real story here and did Holder file against the Navy yet ?
In other Naval news today, this great article about another threat that can totally whack the op in the video: mines.
But I just include this because there was a line in the article: "...a mine is a terrible thing that waits..."
Edited on May 9, 2011 at 4:12pmNov '10
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
A history professor explained this once when we covered Reagan's so-called "star wars" program. The objection is that by making nuclear war winnable, you make it more likely. And since every good liberal knows that we on the right are just chomping at the bit to blow Tehran and Pyongyang sky high, a winnable nuclear war is an inevitable nuclear war.
Jul '10
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
Charles Lavergne
A history professor explained this once when we covered Reagan's so-called "star wars" program. The objection is that by making nuclear war winnable, you make it more likely. And since every good liberal knows that we on the right are just chomping at the bit to blow Tehran and Pyongyang sky high, a winnable nuclear war is an inevitable nuclear war. · May 9 at 10:10pm
Well, for once a professor was right. I am chomping at the bit to nuke Tehran and Pyongyang. As well as Islamabad and Riyahd. And maybe Cairo, too.
May '10
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
Kenneth, luckily you are mistaken in this case. This successful FTM-15 flight test "Validates the Obama Administration's new 'Phased Adaptive Approach' to European missile defense."
Edited on Aug 22, 2011 at 2:57amAug '10
Re: A Dispatch From the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
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