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"Big" Missile Launched from C-17



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 29th 05, 04:12 PM
Ed Kyle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default "Big" Missile Launched from C-17

How many knew about this test? 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

  #2  
Old September 29th 05, 04:27 PM
Ed Kyle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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


  #3  
Old September 29th 05, 05:09 PM
Anthony Frost
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In message .com
"Ed Kyle" wrote:

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"


*BIG* Cylon...

You can just imagine the visor slit with the red light sweeping back and
forth being on the far side.

Anthony

  #4  
Old September 29th 05, 05:28 PM
Pat Flannery
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default



Ed Kyle wrote:

How many knew about this test? 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.



They did another test like that a few months back.
It also wasn't announced till it was over.

Pat
  #5  
Old September 29th 05, 05:33 PM
Pat Flannery
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default



Ed Kyle wrote:

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"



A SWATH radar platform?! That's like something straight out of James Bond.
I'll bet that's a lot of fun to be on during a storm. :-D

Pat
  #6  
Old September 29th 05, 07:06 PM
Derek Lyons
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Ed Kyle" wrote:

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,


I'd be curious to learn what missile they used. A C-17 can carry
pretty much anything in the inventory except a Peackeeper. That they
specifically refer to the missiles first stage leads me to believe it
was a multistage bird - though not all stages may have been fired.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL
  #7  
Old September 29th 05, 07:09 PM
Derek Lyons
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Ed Kyle" wrote:

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"


Anyone who has been reading Allen Thompson's posts for the last couple
of years. (Though to be fair, I think his discussion of SBX has been
limited to sci.military.naval and alt.war.nuclear rather than the
s.s.* groups.)

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL
  #8  
Old September 29th 05, 08:53 PM
Ed Kyle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Derek Lyons wrote:
"Ed Kyle" wrote:

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,


I'd be curious to learn what missile they used. A C-17 can carry
pretty much anything in the inventory except a Peackeeper. That they
specifically refer to the missiles first stage leads me to believe it
was a multistage bird - though not all stages may have been fired.


Orbireport.com shows this as a Castor 4B-based missile.
It also shows Orbital Sciences as the missile integration
contractor. Astronautix shows one OSC Castor 4-based test
missile (single-stage) that flew a few years ago.
"http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/castor4b.htm"

- Ed Kyle

  #9  
Old September 29th 05, 10:42 PM
Allen Thomson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Derek Lyons wrote:

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


Anyone who has been reading Allen Thompson's posts for the last couple
of years. (Though to be fair, I think his discussion of SBX has been
limited to sci.military.naval and alt.war.nuclear rather than the
s.s.* groups.)


No need to be fair -- this is Usenet, after all. Though I do object to
the spelling of "Thompson," which is a vile Sassenach perversion of the
true Scots spelling "Thomson."
http://www.rampantscotland.com/clans/blclanthomson.htm

Anyway, SBX has had an interesting history to date, and will be worth
keeping an eye on in the future. Of space.relevance, it exercises and
calibrates its capabilities by tracking satellites as they come along.

  #10  
Old September 29th 05, 11:54 PM
Pat Flannery
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default



Derek Lyons wrote:

I'd be curious to learn what missile they used. A C-17 can carry
pretty much anything in the inventory except a Peackeeper. That they
specifically refer to the missiles first stage leads me to believe it
was a multistage bird - though not all stages may have been fired.



http://www.orbital.com/Template.php?...sReleaseID=497
I haven't been able to locate a picture of it yet.

Pat

 




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