back to article Son of Star Wars tests this weekend

The US intends a further test of its ballistic-missile defence system, as haggling over budgets and where ground stations will be based continues. According to reports, the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency (MDA) planned its latest test for Thursday, but bad weather near the Alaskan launch site of the target rocket has caused …

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  1. Jan Buys

    ehm...

    "According to reports, the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency (MDA) planned its latest test for Thursday, but bad weather near the Alaskan launch site of the target rocket has caused delays."

    Does this mean the enemy just has to attack on a rainy day then?

  2. Olof P

    Re: ehm...

    No, the target rocket is the one that's supposed to be attacking the US, not the defending one.

  3. Dillon Pyron

    re: ehm

    "Does this mean the enemy just has to attack on a rainy day then?"

    Nope, Alaska is where the target vehicle is launching from. Since the Russians have most of their missiles in Siberia, one would expect that they would only launch during the summer. Given the performance of the North Korean missile, I would expect them to launch from Iowa.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Title had me worried

    Phew -- this article is a relief! From the title, I was worried that Lucas was going to drop another bomb on us! But it's just the US military again....

    Oh, and Jan: the bad weather stopped them launching the TARGET rocket, not the Interceptor.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: ehm...

    Exactly what I was thinking.

    "Ack. Fog again. We'll have to nuke our adversaries another day."

  6. Remy Redert

    target rocket

    The test couldn't proceed because they couldn't launch the missile they want to shoot at, not because the defense system couldn't launch its missiles.

  7. Chris Harden

    English Launch

    If they had lauched it from here in England, it would have been leaves on the launch pad of the target rocket that had caused delays.

  8. Andy Bright

    Target Rocket

    But it doesn't bother anyone that Alaska is one of the proposed sites for the actual defense system too?

    No? Good, then the cheery thought that most Alaskans are not all that great at punctuality or giving a shit shouldn't bother you either.

    Or that everyone takes the summer off because May thru August are the only decent months of the year.

    If Alaska does end up getting some of these interceptor sites that were going to be built in the Aleutians - just hope and pray that either no one fires a rocket at the US during the months of September thru August, or those backup people are really good at getting everything that gets past plan A.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Logic breakdown

    The obvious effect of such a shield will be to force the Chinese to build far more nukes, to ensure that at least some would get through the shield. More nukes means a greater chance of one being launched by some rogue faction, or otherwise falling into the hands of people who the west really doesn't want to have it.

    Bravo America, you've just dramatically increased the risks of a nuclear attack. And your missile shield won't be worth a damn when that missing Chinese nuke gets shipped into New York harbour.

    Do you have to be an idiot to work at the Pentagon, or does it just help your promotion prospects?

  10. amanfromMars

    Time to Grow Up, Children ........ 42 Serve your Countries

    Hmmm. A lot of Hardware red herrings hiding the Simple Truth that the Software being used is no more advanced than whenever IT promoted the Cold War.

    And all IT needs is a few lines of sticky code/Zero Day Words to render the Hardware redundant/Museum pieces.

    Star Wars/Son of Star Wars? Oh please, do us all a favour. If you don't Control Virtual Space with Truths, you don't and cannot Control anything for what other would you think to be playing with, other than Chaos.

    Aint nobody learning nowt, nowadays? Hearts and Minds is [for Pentagon idiots] the NeuReal BattleZone and that is an Intellectual Property Space already long occupied by those who Dare 42 WinWin.

    [This message was brought to you as a Service @ your Service, Servering in Stealth]

    And now y'all know who's at ITs Work.

  11. heystoopid

    Hmm! , what a load of SNAFU

    Hmm! , sadly how soon we forget the laws of physics and the celestial mechanics of orbital space debris left over from the days of every rocket launch from Sputnik 1 to the current point in time! , and statistics too!

    But then again , within the next fifty years or so given the build up of all the shredded space debris in low earth orbit with long orbital latency times of several hundred years, from every satellite rocket and test ICBM launched from 1957 onwards , then every nation on earth will have the same shield of missile destroying space debris , without wasting a dime for this high tech dinosaur!(think of the inertial energy stored by something the size of a BB gun pellet travelling at 20 thousand miles an hour in a vacuum)

    Politely speaking even this test is adding even more orbital junk , to that which is in already in orbit!

    The "peter principle" rocks

    The old military saying "Situation Normal All Fouled Up" covers this situation nicely!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    err...

    err..beware the military-industrial complex anyone?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows for warships

    If we are lucky and "the enemy" is using windows to guide the bright light, we still have 1 out of 10 that the bomb won't detonate.

    I like those odds :-D

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Um...

    Can someone translate amanfromMars' post into English for me?

    I thought I was onto his point around the 3rd paragraph about modern combat being phsycological for a second and then it stopped making sense again.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A small problem...

    "Given the performance of the North Korean missile, I would expect them to launch from Iowa."

    Actually nothing would stop them of doing so. All you need is a way to smuggle a bomb into any country and detonate it in the center of a city. It can be done and nothing short of a giant wall around a country would stop it.

    The east european defense system is placed to the wrong place, it's too far away from iran to stop a launch from there, but too near to the russian north fleet. And the russians have their icbm subs out in the open, because most of the ice is gone from the northern sea. The base was originally destined for hungary but environmentalists (including the current hungarian president) vetoed the radar station because it was to be placed into a national park. Now it will be built in poland, even closer to the russian fleet. To defend against iran, you should place the system to turkey, around the iraqi/iranian border. (turkey is a us supporting nato member, so it would be possible to do so)

  16. James Cleveland

    Ps

    railguns yay.

    They just need man portable ones and the fun shall begin.

  17. SpitefulGOD

    WALOC

    All this SW crap is merely a front, the US government already has weapons that can stop ICBMs and have done for decades. The cash needed for this "test" is just used for some other amazing future product, maybe an enhanced version of the gay ray, nothing scares the torrorists more!

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