can the u.s. shoot down an incoming ballistic missile?

[rockriver]

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-10/stopping-a-n-korean-missile-no-sure-thing-u-s-tester-says-ixr2dcu3

this is one link that popped up when I asked google the question.

so...
what if, north korea fired off a couple of nukes at the u.s.
and we were successful in shooting them down.

what would we do next?
what should we do?
what would you do if the thief down the road shot at you? and you ducked and weaved and his shots missed?
but you could see him reloading.. ?

[Bill Foster]

The Patriot system in Desert Storm did not work that great. More money was put into the system with not much improvement http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...615-story.html

The thing that I have lost sleep over is that if two missles were launched and they shot down one...is that a success if only one nuke hits the left coast? A .500 batting average gets you a multi-million dollar contract in baseball but not much in war.

[rockriver]

yes. it is a success.
two missiles head to my village and the one next door.
one is shot down...
one village is destroyed.

not both.

hopefully the surviving village will go get themselves a boatload of revenge/payback/destruction
I've been accused of not being clear.
let me try again.
hopefully the remaining village will assist the larger community/state/federal in slamming the missile sender back to stone age.

for instance... the u.s. has not slammed the supporting muslim villages that sent the warriors that caused horrible destruction and death on sept 11 a few years back... in my opinion, all of those sending communities have experienced no message of "don't do that again."

apologies for climbing on my soapbox... but I feel better!

[rockriver]

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/20/524833637/u-s-missile-defense-system-to-under-go-more-tests

i'm a little surprised that we are advertising our testing of a missile that can destroy an incoming missile.

but I found this info this morning with a google search...
apparently it is now public information that we are running a test of our capability in the near (this month?) future.

maybe letting the world know of the capability will have a deterrent effect.
but with no. korea leadership, I doubt it!

[rockriver]

another link from military.com

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/05/13/military-plans-flight-intercept-test-ballistic-missile.html

this link lists some prior examples of successes and failures.
and locations of launches of attacker and defender.
found from google searches and not secretive sources.

[Bill Foster]

Rock, I think someone did decide to punish a village once for aiding and abetting the enemy. William Calley. I'm sure the outcome would be the same today.

BTW, is anyone in the Pentgram concerned with someone delivering a dirty bomb to LA? One doesn't have to have a megaton device to cause havoc.

[rockriver]

bill, great point.
I haven't ever considered the relationship.

I posted then deleted more info on teaching source villages of the muslim attacks, then realized I was getting off base from original question.

[Lowdown3]

Interesting timing of things. Consider this-

Kim says "going to test a missile", fires it, it "fails within short distance."

Next shoe that drops- big cyber attack, shutdowns in CA and NYC. A little warning maybe?

Kim says "going to test a missile", fires it, same deal as first (recent) go around.

A little time passes, more sabre rattling.

Cyber attack goes worldwide, Kim shoots missile and nothing knocks it out of sky or otherwise causes it to "fail within a short distance."

Connected?

[rockriver]

hmm.
what if... ld's on to something.
hmm.
well, let's see. we've got about 2 weeks worth of food.
we should be ok!
hmm.
maybe it's time for that trip to the warehouse grocery club.
i'm going to send the bride...
oh yeah.
she's in "ahhhh" that location is closer to Krazy no. Korea than home base!!

I think she should cut that vacation short!
nah... ain't nuthin' gonna happen.
whew...

[rockriver]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/us-to-launch-test-of-nations-missile-shield/article/2624260

sounds like test info being made public.

[cpt_sfc]

Couple thoughts. 1. Even if you stop the missiles flight, it is still going to fall somewhere 2. Hi explosive inside that sets off the nuke is at least going to explode (no nuke) but a possible dirty bomb. 3. even with no Kapow of any sort, a missile when it lands is going to make a mess, just a smaller one from KINETIC energy. I do think we have the weapons on hand to stop it fast but I might stray into forbidden areas. Look up rail gun, high output laser etc. One nuke may disable any others in area of flight path.

[cpt_sfc]

http://optics.org/news/5/12/18

Would something like this off the shore of korea take down the nut cases missile. 30 kw laser?

[rockriver]

http://newatlas.com/us-missile-defnse-agency-icbm-gmd-intercept/49789/

yee hah for the good guys...
may send an even better video..

so the question remains... what if... nok tries to nuke the usa... and we are successful in shooting it down...
and no deaths in the u.s.
we are just out a few hundred million to accomplish the task...
what do we do next?

[rockriver]

try this for a little video...

https://www.mda.mil/news/gallery_gmd.html

click on 2017