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Home Front: WoT
US military intercepts missile off Hawaii in first test since February
2008-06-06
The US military says it has intercepted a ballistic missile near Hawaii in a test. The sea-based test Thursday was the military's first since an errant satellite was shot down earlier this year. A target was fired from a decommissioned amphibious assault ship about 160 kilometers off the island of Kauai. It was a Scud-like missile with a range of a few hundred kilometers.

The USS Lake Erie fired two interceptor missiles at the target. It was shot down in its final seconds of flight about 19 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean. The Lake Erie is a Navy cruiser based at Pearl Harbor. In February, the ship shot down a US spy satellite in the Aegis defense program's first real-world mission.
Posted by:Fred

#5  crosspatch, I think McZ was suggesting that the bad guys would target our ABM lauchers first, not that we would hit the Scud launchers.
Posted by: AlanC   2008-06-06 14:59  

#4  "In that venue, an enemy could target the launchers"

Do you recall how difficult it was to even find the launchers during the first gulf war? Finding those launchers most often happens AFTER a missile launch and if the airspace is hostile, it is difficult to loiter around waiting for one to be fired. But even if you can, what happens to the missile that is on its way? So you just tell the people that they need to sacrifice their lives but you will get the launcher eventually if enough missiles are fired from it to locate it?

Better to knock down the missile AND get the launcher.
Posted by: crosspatch   2008-06-06 11:40  

#3  AMD is fully functioning and is ready to see your modified nuclear/chemical SCUDs Iran and will raise bombing you back into the stone age while you can't hit us.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-06-06 08:06  

#2  This would be a test of the SM-2 Block IV, not SM-3, missile.
Posted by: ed   2008-06-06 07:06  

#1  I support ABM development against ICBMs, but not in Europe. In that venue, an enemy could target the launchers, with cruise missiles, and deployment would hand a launch-on-warning pretext to same. And Euro-polls suggest the public is lukewarm on being targeted. Spending billions of systems that locals will likely reject, makes no sense. Who the hell is fixated on Euro-ABMs? Smack them on the head, please. This is 2008, not 1948.
Posted by: McZoid   2008-06-06 05:28  

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