|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Antimissile War Game Stops Mock Attack by “Midland”
An simulated antimissile system, modeled after the U.S. system now under development, successfully repelled six ballistic missiles launched at the United States in a U.S. Air Force war game yesterday, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, March 11). At Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, the Air Force demonstrated for journalists a scenario in which a fictitious nation in the Sea of Japan, dubbed “Midland,” fires all six of its missiles at the United States. Base officials said one of the reasons for the exercise was to demonstrate the short time frame involved in missile defense, which leads to fast-paced activity and stress on participants. “It’s what war gamers call ‘organized chaos,’” said Schriever spokesman Robert McKinney. A missile launched from North Korea, on which Midland is modeled, according to the Washington Post, could reach the northwestern United States in approximately 30 minutes. Air Force officials said the process of launch detection, trajectory determination and interceptor course computation could take about eight minutes. Thomas Christie, the Pentagon’s chief weapons evaluator, recently questioned the value of such simulations (see GSN, March 12). Officials at Schriever defended the models’ accuracy, noting the success of a number of previous tests. Tension in Tuesday’s mock launch hit the high point, according to the Washington Post, when two interceptors were in the air against two remaining incoming missiles. One was headed toward Anchorage and one toward Boise. That left only one interceptor that could be fired. If the interceptors missed the missiles, officials could have attempted to save only one of the cities. After the Anchorage-bound missile was destroyed, the final interceptor was fired at the Boise-bound missile. But that proved unnecessary when the initial interceptor made contact. Were a real-life choice of this kind necessary, officials said issues such as population size would be a factor (Bradley Graham, Washington Post, March 17).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
