The Pentagon will launch an intercontinental ballistic missile by the end of the year and try to intercept it with an airborne laser. This is what is confirmed by Vice Admiral James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency.
Pentagon plans call for the use of laser technology on high-altitude drones in constant patrolling. To date, laser technology is not considered to be mature enough, although the know-how acquired with the program Airborne Laser.
The MDA had hypothesized a fleet of highly modified Boeing 747 and armed with lasers capable of destroying enemy missiles immediately after launch, before they could release countermeasures. Unfortunately the tests showed the gaps in the system that in order to have hopes of hitting the missiles, it would have had to fly 24 hours on 24 close to the enemy borders. The laser then had a limited range and a range less than expected. Finally, the 747 would have had to fly with an escort as they were constantly defenseless against anti-aircraft missiles and enemy fighters. The program was canceled in the 2012, after a decade of experimentation. Total cost: 5,3 billion dollars. Four years later, the Pentagon believes that laser technology is mature enough to kill enemy ballistic missiles.
The new project of the Missile Defense Agency involves the use of drones capable of flying at 65 thousand feet high for long periods. The drones will be equipped with newly developed lasers.
Should the laser prove to be a success, the MDA will perform another test using the ground-based Sm-3 Block IB interceptors (Romania probably) against an ICBM target.
Over the past five years, the United States has successfully intercepted short and medium-range ballistic missiles. The space shield has always been a cause of confrontation between Russia and the United States. According to the US the shield aims to defend allies from possible missile threats from Iran and North Korea. Moscow, however, sees in the missile shield positions close to its borders as a threat to national security.
The European fire stations of the US Space Shield will be in Poland and Romania. The Mediterranean Sea (as well as the Adriatic and Ionian Sea) represents the fulcrum of the shield's offensive capabilities with constant rotation from the 2011 of missile class cruisers Ticonderoga (picture below) e Arleigh Burke. The two early warning stations were deployed at the RAF station in Fylingdales and in Turkey. The AN / TPY mobile station (Army Navy / Transportable Radar Surveillance, ed) was deployed at the Kürecik base, in Turkey, in January of the 2012.
(photo: US DoD)
