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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: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 17 2020, @09:53PM (7 children)
Ship based ICBM interception. Wow, that would really be impressive if we had thousands, or tens of thousands of ships. Alas - we don't have thousands. Not even a thousand. Depending on which source you look at, we might have 500 combat ships. At any given time, maybe 100 to 120 of those ships are at sea, or ready to put to sea. (that could be increased considerably, with advance warning) Somehow, that doesn't suggest very thorough coverage or potential approaches to the continental United States.
Forgive me if I don't get all excited at the idea of ships intercepting ICBMs.
Best use for this, is if/when tensions start escalating with $antagonist, you picket a couple of ships offshore of that antagonist, and wait. Maybe you'll get lucky.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Tuesday November 17 2020, @10:26PM (2 children)
Get lucky, that they fired ICBMs? Yeah, I wouldn't call that lucky. Actually shooting down all of the ICBMs fired, one might call that a miracle. Or just "lucky" / well planned, depending on the number of missiles fired. Some place like North Korea, one would hope you could take out their one or two ICBMs fired. Some place like Russia, sending a major volley of ICBMs, yeah, that might take a miracle to intercept them all.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @01:38AM (1 child)
Prayer warriors on standby.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 18 2020, @04:56PM
Don't knock it until you've tried it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8424184-prayer-warriors [goodreads.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday November 17 2020, @10:57PM (3 children)
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36004/china-tests-long-range-anti-ship-ballistic-missiles-as-u-s-spy-plane-watches-it-all
These are very long range ballistic missiles used to strike ships. Xi calls them 'carrier killers' and it's easy to understand why the US Navy would like to have a proven defense against them.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday November 17 2020, @11:02PM (1 child)
True, but those aren't the same as ICBMs. They are moving at a much higher velocity and have a much lower altitude than an ICBM.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday November 17 2020, @11:21PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2020, @09:19AM
I expect that in modern war carriers would become an anachronism. A giant, isolated, slow moving target worth potentially hundreds of billions of dollars, to say nothing of its tactical value? Even if you can manage to deal with ICBMs it seems like something that's probably an unsolvable problem. There are so many possible angles of attack for something that has too high of a value. For instance another recently declassified weapon from Russia was 'tsunami bombs.' Nuclear torpedoes that can create artificial 500 meter high tsunamis. While the main purpose of these would be to annihilate coastal cities while sidestepping anti-missile defenses, it seems something similar would also be more than sufficient to devastate naval fleets.
Like in many tactical games, it's simply magnitudes easier to attack than to defend. To accurately defend you need to anticipate every single possible angle of attack and create effective defenses against them all. And you need to do that with absolute perfection. To successfully attack all you need is a single mistake, or a single angle of attack that was not properly guarded. This is why, for instance, insurgent groups in the Mideast have been able to effect tens of thousands of causalities on our troops primarily using 70 year old rifle technology and some home-made bombs. It's a sort of David vs Goliath scenario, except in this case David gets to hide wherever he wants, use whatever weapons he can come up with, and Goliath gets to stand in the middle of a stadium with his thumb up his ass, just hoping he can stop whatever's coming.