[ExI] test of icbm intercept

[spike]

.On Friday, officials said the Pentagon will try to shoot down an
intercontinental-range missile for the first time in a test this week. The
goal is to more closely simulate a North Korean ICBM aimed at the U.S.
homeland, officials said.

North Korea is now the focus of U.S. efforts because its leader has vowed to
field a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching American territory.

 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/pentagon-conduct-icbm-intercept-test/sto
ry?id=47667872

 

 

Shall we start a betting pool on whether the attempted intercept will hit
the target?

 

This is a fun one.  Back in the Reagan years, there were definite signs of
thawing of cold war rivalries.  By 1991, the US and the commies were
retiring nuclear missiles.  In that time frame I saw the first early
concepts of a ground-fired hit-to-kill vehicle.  This caused a huge debate
on whether the whole notion was in violation of existing ABM treaties.  The
way it was handled was to insist that it was really aimed against Iran, Iraq
and North Korea.  This debate was going on when the current Dear Leader was
age 7 years.

 

I remember the dark days of that program.  At first we never missed the
target, assuming the target was the ground.  Sometimes we went in circuitous
paths, but we hit that target every time.  I was on and off with that
program during the 1990s, but it was not much fun to work there until the
first successful intercept in about summer of 1999.  It was a much more
pleasant office after that first successful intercept.  The THAAD office was
widely considered a career graveyard back in the 1990s, but the controls
work was very interesting.  

 

Intercept tests since then are about 50% or so.  This is a harder test than
has ever been done.

 

Is this not remarkable?  The top military brass was already thinking about
how to deal with the Dear Leader and his offspring at least 26 yrs ago.  The
same think-tanks were extrapolating (both ours and the commies) realizing
that if the yanks work out hit-to-kill, we could eventually hit an ICBM,
which undermines the notion of Mutual Assured Destruction.  Tuesday we may
face a new peril: we might enter an era in which Russia and the US cannot
completely destroy each other.  How shall we cope?

 

>From a controls perspective, hitting an ICBM is one heeeeeelllll of a
difficult task.  Were I buying shares, I would pay about 30 cents.  Shall we
start a play-money version?  No software needed, just suggest a price, we
will see where they average out.  Assume you have about 100 shares I just
set the price to 30 cents.  Bettors, are you buying or selling?

 

The test is scheduled for Tuesday.  Good luck to the good guys!

 

spike

 

 

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