US Missile Defense Test Fails

[KipWellsFan]

courtesy cbc.ca

 

Last Updated Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:23:31 EST

WASHINGTON - The first full test in nearly two years of a multibillion-dollar U.S. anti-missile shield failed Wednesday when one missile launched but a second shut down before leaving the ground, the Pentagon says.

 

The Missile Defence Agency has tried to do the $85-million US test several times this month, but it's aborted each attempt before launch due to weather or technical glitches.

 

In Wednesday's test, a target missile carrying a mock warhead was successfully launched from Kodiak, Alaska, shortly before 1 a.m. ET, according to a statement from the agency.

 

A second missile that was to intercept it after being fired from an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean instead shut down, the agency said.

 

The Pentagon, which spends about $10 billion US a year on the U.S. ballistic missile defence system, blamed an "anomaly" of unknown origin.

 

Glitch likely to delay system's launch

 

The aborted test seemed likely to set back plans to activate the system, meant to fend off long-range ballistic missiles.

 

U.S. President George W. Bush promised in 2002 to have the program up and running by the end of this year. Washington has already placed 10 of the land-based missiles in western states, poised to shoot down incoming threats.

 

The program has sparked controversy in Canada, which has been pressured to take part.

 

Poll after poll has indicated that Canadians are less than keen. The latest survey, in November, suggested that 52 per cent of Canadians don't want Prime Minister Paul Martin to sign on.

 

The system is a scaled-down version of the missile shield first proposed in 1983 by then-president Ronald Reagan and seen by some critics as "Star Wars."

 

That's a shame

[Rex Kickass]

That anomaly I believe would be reality.

 

I don't think this system ever passed an unrigged test if my memory serves me correctly.

[FlaSoxxJim]

What a shock - Star Wars still doesn't work.

 

If only a huge contingent of internationally-recognized physicists and other scientists who know a thing or two about such matters would have told someone this would never work and there are better ways to allocate $10 billion a year in defense spending.

 

Oh, wait, that DID happen.

[KipWellsFan]

Now Missile Defense system has failed 2 tests in a row for seemingly the same reason.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/02/14/missile...e.ap/index.html

[Queen Prawn]

I told them to not use those resistors!!!

[FlaSoxxJim]

I told them to not use those resistors!!! 

 

Resistence is futile.

 

[Queen Prawn]

LMAO!