Ed Kyle wrote:
How many knew about this test?

For that matter, how many of you knew that the U.S. had
one of *these*?

"http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/images/sbx001.jpg"

The Air Force (US variety)
drop (parachute) launched a Castor 4B-based test missile
from a C-17 on September 26 to test the Cobra Dane missile
defense radar system.

"http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/pdf/05news0009.pdf"

"26 September 2005
Missile Defense Radar Exercise Successfully Completed
Air Force Lieutenant General Henry "Trey" Obering, Missile Defense
Agency director, announced the
successful completion today of an important exercise to test the Cobra
Dane radar located at Shemya, Alaska
(Aleutian Islands) and the fire control system for the Ground-based
Midcourse Defense element of the Ballistic
Missile Defense System. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense is
America's deployed system to protect the
country against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack. The
Cobra Dane radar has been used for missile
surveillance for nearly 30 years, and has been upgraded for use as a
missile defense radar.
The exercise involved the launch of a long-range ballistic missile from
an Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft over
international waters in the Pacific Ocean approximately 800 miles from
Shemya Island. After the missile was
dropped from the aircraft, a parachute deployed to stabilize and slow
the missile. The missile's first stage
rocket motor then ignited, sending the missile downrange. The target
missile's flight was successfully tracked
by the Cobra Dane radar, and the data obtained by Cobra Dane was then
used to construct a Weapon Task
Plan, or firing solution, that was fed into the systems fire control
system manned by military "warfighters" in
Colorado Springs, Colorado and Ft. Greely, Alaska, who currently
operate the interceptor missiles now
deployed in Alaska and California, as well as the sensors and radars
that provide operational detection and
tracking information. The deployed interceptors provide for the first
time a capability to defend all 50 states
against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack.
Launching a missile from an aircraft provided an operationally
realistic trajectory and an opportunity to fly
across the face of the Cobra Dane radar. The radar has not been
available for use during previous flight tests
because it is well outside the area of the existing missile test range
that stretches between the Marshall Islands
in the central Pacific Ocean to the California coast. However, because
the radar has tracked ballistic missile
flights for nearly 30 years, a huge amount of data is available
regarding its performance. The exercise
completed today marks the first time that data obtained from an actual
missile tracked by Cobra Dane was fed
into the missile defense fire control system to obtain a firing
solution. If this had been an intercept test, or an
actual missile attack on the United States, the fire control system
would have taken Cobra Dane and data from
other space-based, sea-based and ground-based sensors and developed a
firing solution. This information
would have been transmitted to interceptor missiles in Alaska and
California, which would then launch from
their underground silos, travel several thousand miles per hour to a
point in space high above the earth and
maneuver to place it directly in the path of the incoming warhead to
destroy it using only a direct collision,
known as "hit to kill" technology, to destroy the warhead before it
reached its target in the United States with a
nuclear, chemical or biological weapon.
Contact: Missile Defense Agency, Rick Lehner - 703-697-8997"


- Ed Kyle