Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (165501)	7/28/2001 2:37:47 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Another great victory for the Military Industrials: Officials Say Beacon Aids Anti-Missile Test By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. anti-missile weapon was able to destroy a test warhead in space on July 14 partly because a beacon on the target signaled its location during much of the flight, defense officials said on Friday. The officials confirmed a report by Defense Week that the ''hit-to-kill'' weapon was guided to the vicinity of the speeding warhead high over the Pacific Ocean by signals from the electronic beacon in a successful, highly publicized test. But they stressed in interviews with Reuters that the weapon, fired at the oncoming warhead from Kwajalein Atoll, used its own on-board seekers and navigation system to home in on and shatter the target in the final phase of the test. Critics have charged that such tests to date have been unrealistic, including this month's second successful U.S. military interception of a warhead in four tries. The test gave impetus to President Bush's controversial plan to build a defense against missile attack. ``The only thing that it (the beacon) does is help get the booster in the right direction,'' said Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. ``The weapon finds the target and hits it.'' ``We have made no secret of this. We have been very open,'' Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said. He and others conceded that real warheads in an attack would not carry such helpful beacons, but that the beacons would be required in a number of future tests. COMPENSATING FOR RADARS In a report to be published on Monday, Defense Week said the electronic beacon was used to help the weapon compensate for deficiencies in the current U.S. ground radar-tracking setup and get into the general area of the dummy warhead. Lehner said money was being sought from Congress for a powerful and sophisticated ``X-Band'' radar near Hawaii, or perhaps on a floating platform in the Pacific, to provide better real-time tracking of the target in midflight. Defense officials said U.S. military radars currently located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Kwajalein were too close to launches of the target warhead and kill vehicle to give a clear picture of the target's midcourse flight. In this month's half-hour test, a sensor on a space satellite detected the launch of the missile containing the target from Vandenberg on its 4,000-mile (6,600 km) flight to the targeting area. The rocket also carried a Mylar balloon as a decoy to see if the hit-to-kill weapon would be fooled into deviating from the warhead and hitting the balloon. It was not. ``The beacon (on the warhead) tells it (the hit-to-kill weapon) roughly where in space to start looking,'' Quigley said. ''We will get to the point where we develop real final systems. But you can't go any faster now.'' The next test of the anti-missile system is now tentatively set for October, and Quigley said the test and others for the foreseeable future would use such beacons until a more sophisticated radar array was in place. NOT THE ``FINAL VERSION'' ``You can find all kinds of elements of the current tests that are not part of the final version'' of a missile defense, he told Reuters. Keith Englander, technical director of the ballistic missile program, acknowledged in an interview with Defense Week that the target transponder gave the hit-to-kill projectile a box in space at which to aim. But thereafter, he said, the Kwajalein radar gave the interceptor three ``in-flight target updates'' on the warhead's flight trajectory that refined the box to half the original size. The kill vehicle did the rest, firing its positioning thrusters 28 times to collide directly with the warhead at more than 14,000 mph. Phillip Coyle, who until last year oversaw testing of the missile-shield system and other military programs, told Defense Week the Pentagon deserved credit for hitting the target. But he said the active electronic beacon was a big help. The beacon was ``like a pinger saying, 'Here I am,''' Coyle said. CC