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Pentagon shoots down mock intercontinental missile in sea-based test
In a first for the Pentagon's push to develop defenses against intercontinental-range ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States, a missile interceptor launched from a U.S. Navy ship at sea hit and destroyed a mock ICBM in flight Tuesday, officials said.
Previous tests against ICBM targets had used interceptors launched from underground silos in the U.S. If further, more challenging tests prove successful, the ship-based approach could add to the credibility and reliability of the Pentagon's existing missile-defense system.
The success of Tuesday's test is likely to draw particular interest from North Korea, whose development of ICBMs and nuclear weapons is the main reason the Pentagon has sought to accelerate its building of missile-defense systems over the past decade.
Also at Bloomberg and DefenseNews.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2020, @09:04PM (1 child)
It must be pretty awesome to be an engineer working on that project. That is a VERY hard problem. Time will tell how consistent it can be done, but it had to have been a great jump out of your chair moment when it worked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @01:36AM
What's so hard? I bet AI could do it if you put 2 Chinese grad students on it.