Korean missile ?

Jon Elson · 2006-07-07T05:56:16+00:00

So, did we shoot that Korean missile down, or was it justcrummy engineering? (OT, but some metal was worked in thatincident, no matter what caused it. Probably some darn finemetalworking in the thing, too.)I know we have an "airborne laser" that is under the auspices of theAir Force Research lab. It basically fills most of a 747.Jon

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F. George McDuffee 20 years ago

================== There is lots of metal content --- lets hope it is *NOT* scrap metal content?.

==> Its people like you that are a danger to the Republic, thinking -- always thinking.

====== more response based on a Sunday news item =========

For more on how we "stick it to" China [and India] see

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No G-8 seat for China, other big economies

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer Sat Jul 8, 11:09 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The G-8 summit that President Bush and seven other world leaders are attending next weekend in Russia is often billed as a gathering of the world's leading economic powers. It is not. Consider: China, now the world's fourth-largest economy and the nation with the most influence over renegade North Korea, is not a member.

In common with most failing managements, the less government can/will produce the more they talk and try to control.

China and the other emerging economies have apparently figured out that it is easier to by-pass and circumvent the institutions and organizations controlled by the west, and there is no reason to give the west "a piece of the action" of trade between themselves. Indeed, why should a sale between China and Brasil, or China and Niger have to be financed through a New York bank, with the goods insured by an English company, and shipped using a French cargo company?

Unka George (George McDuffee)

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the "money touch," but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. Letter, 15 Nov. 1913.

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J. Clarke 20 years ago

Which ABM system? There have been many and many tests. Patriot and SM-3 both seem to work reasonably well. But both are short-range systems--did the North Korean missile come within a hundred miles of a Patriot site or an Aegis cruiser or destroyer?

Far more likely that the North Koreans just screwed up.

As for the airborne laser, it has been sitting at the Air Force Museum for more than 10 years.

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Bill Bonde ('The path is clear 20 years ago

Theatre defences are a possibility against North Korea's missile shoots. That is between the short range Patriot type systems and the long range strategic ones sitting in Alaska, etc. The midlevel designs are often ship borne and they are sitting offshore of North Korea right now.

The laser systems are certainly still being worked on and tested:

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quote "After years of development, the Pentagon is about to learn whether its investment of time and millions of dollars in the Airborne Laser missile defense system has paid off," Aviation Week notes.

The Airborne Laser -- a modified 747 that shoots chemically-powered beams of ultrahot light -- has been in the works since the Reagan years. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Air Force have been developing components for the plane's current iteration since 1996.

But during the course of the next year all those elements will have to be integrated to confront one major remaining challenge: shooting down a boosting ballistic missile over the Pacific.

What lies ahead in the coming months is expected to be a difficult engineering endeavor. Program managers recognize that they still have to overcome high hurdles, and indicate the shootdown attempt is likely going to occur in 2005, not late 2004. "It gets more and more challenging to hold to the 2004 date," notes ABL program director USAF Col. Ellen M. Pawlikowski.

The shootdown attempt should go a long way toward addressing the main questions hanging over ABL: can adequate laser energy be generated to overcome atmospheric absorption, can the energy be focused on a small enough point to damage a missile, and will the software-intensive battle management system work? Even a successful test won't convince all critics, since the first test will be at relatively close range, intentionally designed to demonstrate system functionality rather than determine if the ABL can accomplish its mission in a stressful setting. #end quote

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