Ouch
Least they didn't launch and hit it. The boat's crew would never have known what hit them!
The X-51A Waverider scramjet test scheduled for yesterday has been delayed for 24 hours by a freighter wandering into the Pacific firing range where the trial flight is to take place. According to a statement issued by US spokesmen at Edwards airforce base - where the X-51's launch aircraft, a modified B-52 bomber operated by …
Wasn't there already a failed test flight of one of these? They successfully launched and got like <5 seconds of telemetry before it fell apart.
More than likely it was a case of Russian captain saying, "Da, Chinese contact told to park here and collect pieces."
If they are keeping an eye out for surface shipping, then the Powers that Be must get cracking to deploy a submerible in that area quickly if they are to recover the "lost" testbed and develop the next generation equipment themselves...
Though I notice that this article comes out at about the time of the rescheduled test. Hmmm.
That's what I get for relying on El Reg for my top-secret intelligence. Zut!