SDI: Happy Birthday!

[Rach3]

Next Saturday 9/23 will mark the 24.5'th (twenty-four-and-a-halved) birthday of our adorable undead zombie, the anti-ballistic missile defence. Having outlived both Reagan himself and the Soviet union, it still remains as ever, a powerful political concept (though never yet, an operational one).

Brief history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Missile_Defense#The_Strategic_Defense_Ini tiative

The American Physical Society's 2003 report on how feasable boost-phase intercepts are:
http://www.aps.org/public_affairs/popa/reports/nmd03.cfm

And of course, 19 years of Bob Park opinionations on ABM's:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=missile&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=bobpark.physics.umd.edu&as_rights=&safe=images :biggrin:

[Rach3]

I especially enjoyed this one:
1. MISSILE DEFENSE: UNTESTED DEFENSE MEETS NON-EXISTENT THREAT.

In last Sunday's missile defense test, an interceptor missile again refused to leave its silo. Who can blame it? It's crazy out there. A month ago, a "minor software glitch" caused a malfunction (WN 14 Jan 05) This time it was a tiny switch in the silo. The Missile Defense Agency doesn't seem worried; tests don't count if they don't get to "the end game" (WN 13 Feb 02). Does missile defense seem just a little less urgent these days? According...http://www.bobpark.org/WN05/wn021805.html

[Astronuc]

though never yet, an operational one Shhhhh! The taxpayers might hear you. No one is supposed to notice that. I mean think of the $billions at stake. Any day now, it might become effective :rolleyes:

[Gokul43201]

A week or two ago, there was a successful interception test.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609020154sep02,1,147118.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2006/09/03/news/news03.txt

Later Friday, Lt. Gen. Henry “Trey” Obering III, MDA director, called the test “a total success.”

Defense experts, however, agree that this is but a tiny step forward, towards the ultimate goal of realistic missile defense.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/8149571p-8042339c.html

The missile defense system is still far from being able to protect Americans from long-range missile attacks, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

"The whole purpose of this is to be able to tell the North Koreans to take a hike," said Pike. "They are not close to that yet. Whether it will ever happen is subject to debate."

[Astronuc]

A historic problem with SDI is the definition of success, or the 're-definition' of success. If the missile leaves the launch site, it might be considered successful. :rolleyes: But in reality, if the interceptor fails to intercept - well - BOOM! That's not much of a success.

Hopefully an airborne laser system will be more successful, but then there is the matter of actually finding the target.

For every anti-missile system, there are effective counter measures to render it less than fully effective.

[Yonoz]

For every anti-missile system, there are effective counter measures to render it less than fully effective.True, but this is no different than any other technological arms race. Modifying a warhead is one thing, but as anti-missile technology progresses it attacks the missile in earlier stages of its flight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_missile).The Arrow Interceptor (טיל חץ, Hebrew: "Til Hetz") is a theater missile defense (TMD) system; it is the first missile developed by Israel that was specifically designed and built to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles on a national level. It is the only anti-ballistic missile system able to intercept its targets high in the stratosphere.
This requires a completely new approach to entire systems and methodics. An airborne laser will probably be effective until the next generation of missiles, in addition to other inherent design limits that make it much less than fully effective under certain conditions.

[Astronuc]

The key thing to remember - "you can't hit what you can't see". :wink:

[Yonoz]

The key thing to remember - "you can't hit what you can't see". :wink:That is why the specifications of the tools used to identify missile launches and trajectories are highly classified. It is another battle in this technological arms race.

[Yonoz]

Here is some information about the heart of the system, the Green Pine radar (http://www.iai.co.il/sip_storage/files/9/32419.wmv).
GREEN PINE EARLY WARNING FIRE CONTROL AND MISSILE GUIDANCE RADAR (http://www.army-technology.com/projects/arrow2/):Green Pine is an electronically scanned, solid state, phased array radar operating at L-band in the range 500MHz to 1,000MHz, and was developed from the Elta Music phased array radar. The radar operates in search, detection, tracking and missile guidance modes simultaneously.

The radar can detect targets at ranges up to about 500km and is able to track targets up to speeds over 3,000m/s. The radar illuminates the target and guides the Arrow missile to within 4m of the target.

Two Elta Green Pine radar systems have been delivered to India as part of that nation's air defence system against ballistic missiles. The first was delivered in 2001.