Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Anyone who is in favor of the continuance of this 'Shore/Land-Based' Missle Defense System doesn't know squat about Balistic Missles, either Tacticle or Intercontinental types.
There are only 2 times that both are vulnerble to a defensive strike - that is in the first 30 or so seconds of the launch phase,
and for the ICBM there alone is a small window of opportunuty that is the 'Position & Deployment' phase - where either the individual or the multiple warheads are independently set on their re-entry course.
That's the small space in time when the deployment vehicle is in it's apex of flight, has positioned itself for target alignment,
and is 'spinning-up' the warhead (to only 1/3 of an RPM) for re-entry stabilization - in just a matter of seconds the platform separates from the payload, and that payload comes screaming down from some 700 miles in space to re-enter at hypersonic velocities,
that no ground based intercepter can either accurately locate or match trajectories with.
The most promising - and most likey to work, is the Space Based Kenetic Weapons System, know as 'Brilliant Pebbles' - the KeWe.
It deploys from a space based pod, or cluster of pods, uses satellite tracking at the boost phase to determine which group of pods will be closest to the intruder when the kill is needed to be made, selects, launches, and fires the propulsion system to drive the Kenetic Weapon into the intruder at several thousands of miles an hour at impact, tearing it apart. The impact/contact has to occur before the deployment of 'Chaffe' - the space debris equivalent of 'traffic cones' that are warhead mass simulators, that will be present by the dozens in the area of warhead deployment for the purpose of confusing radar and detection devices.
It takes sophisticated 'Black-Body' thermal analyzers to see the difference between a true warhead and a dummy that gives the same image to the viewers.
Here's a clue - the background radiant temperature of space is 3 degrees Celsius.
At instant of deployment all parts whether real or fake will have the same thermal image.
Only the true warhead - with sufficient resident thermal heat and mass will stay as a Thermal 'Hot-Spot' for more than a few seconds,
the dummies will begin loosing their heat to space faster, and be lost in the background radiation within 30 seconds.
That which cools the slowest is the real one - you have to: identify, sort, choose, launch, target, close distance, and strike.
Your window of functional opportunity is 30 seconds at best.
And you're driving down the freeway at 200 miles an hour looking for an address in an appartment complex -
you get no second chance if you drive past.
