US missile intercept test fails ( $400 million dollars and they still can't get it correct)

[unhappycamper]

US missile intercept test fails
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 15, 2010; 6:27 PM

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- An interceptor missile launched from California on Wednesday failed to hit a target fired from a Pacific atoll 4,000 miles away during a test of an anti-ballistic missile defense system, the Air Force announced.

The missile, called a ground-based interceptor, lifted off from coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base at 12:03 a.m. and released a device called an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, or EKV, that was to plow into a target missile fired from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The interceptor's sensors worked and the EKV was deployed, but it missed, according to a statement from Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

The cause of the failure will be investigated before another test is scheduled, Lehner said.

It was the fourth launch of a fully operational interceptor from Vandenberg, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The $100 million launch originally was planned for Tuesday, but it was delayed by poor weather.

[ixion]

1. it can't even pass a 'friendly' test after all these years... what a waste of money

:argh:

[Statistical]

2. Hitting a missile in space with another missile is very difficult.

It may simply be beyond our current technology level at this time.

It literally is as hard as shooting a bullet with another bullet.

The relative speeds of the two entities means you only get a single chance and the target is relatively small given how far you need to travel to reach it. The margin of error is in the hundredths of a %.

[Recursion]

14. We had a project on this in my control systems class

The stuff they're doing is as revolutionary as Kalman Filters were in the 50s (which were made to guide the missiles these missiles are trying to shoot down). There are a lot of very innovative technologies that will come out of this.

Like James Burke said in Connections: we may not like war or religion, but over history they have prompted more technological advances than anything else.

[bemildred]

3. "The $100 million launch ..."

So they just pissed away another $100 million.

[unhappycamper]

4. yup.

:(

[Recursion]

11. No, they employed a bunch of engineers for several years

And developed novel control and guidance systems.

[Statistical]

17. Not exactly.

It isn't like they loaded $100 mil of cold hard cash into a cannon and shot it into space.

The $100 mil cost is the culmination of years of worker labor (and wages). Not only that the parts came from other companies which required employees to make them. If we bought a $100 mil missile from the Russians or the Brits you might have a point.

The pricetag always comes up on spaceflight too. Something like.... "we shouldn't spend $xx on Mars". Well we won't spend a single nickle ON MARS. All the spending/funding is here on earth and requires high skill high paying technical jobs. The kind of jobs we need and want in the US.

[hobbit709]

5. "but it was delayed by poor weather."

So even under ideal conditions it doesn't work. Do they really think an enemy would wait for perfect weather to launch against us.

[petronius]

18. I suspect the "poor weather" was more a barrier to their observing the launch

than a hazard to the launch itself. It was pretty foggy out there Tuesday morning, but there wasn't anything that would interfere with a missile - they just wanted to be able to see it go...

[thecrow]

6. OMG! What if we were attacked DURING POOR WEATHER!?!?

That the weather affects this is of note, too.

[msongs]

7. primary target = US treasury. Mission accomplished! nt

[Ezlivin]

8. Can you imagine throwing this kind of money at our educational system?

"We spent 100 million dollars last year in an attempt to improve our educational system. We failed. We are prepared to spend another 100 million to get the task done right."

Yeah, I know: In your dreams.

[Recursion]

12. We spend a *lot* more than 100 million a year on education.

Orders of magnitude more. One single supplemental spent 10 billion on employing teachers (spread over 4 years I think).

This project employs engineers. That's a good thing, given how many are getting laid off from the private sector.

[Occam Bandage]

20. A, we spend way more than that on education.

B, spending money on high-tech programs creates jobs in engineering and the sciences, which in turn encourages development of engineers and scientists.

[Ezlivin]

21. Well, I guess you CAN imagine spending $100,000,000 on education

Thanks for the figures.

I stand corrected.

[Javaman]

9. "but it was delayed by poor weather."

note to hostile foreign entity, bomb us during crappy weather.

[formercia]

10. Us a Nuke warhead like the old days....

You only need to get close...but then, back in those days, the World wasn't controlled by EMP sensitive Microprocessors.

When the balloon goes up, the first EMP event will paralyze everything for thousands of miles.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

13. If they had launched it on Tuesday, it would have at least hit the poor weather.

:*

[kgnu_fan]

15. How many schools, how many hospitals, how many communities need that money!!!

[nc4bo]

16. Makes you sick doesn't it? People suffer for this stupidity?

Survival of the fittest and if can you manage to stay alive and healthy through it all, you may even get the chance to play with (or killed by) some of the MICs pretty, shiny playthings.

This is the way of the mighty warmonger.

[Karmadillo]

19. +1

nt

[MadHound]

22. A weapon system that is designed to fulfill its purpose

Lining the pockets of the MIC for generation after generation.

Mission accomplished.

[formercia]

23. I can remember back in the early Eighties when they were still screwing with the Sprint ABM

That one had a Nuke for a warhead.