Weather Delays Full Flight Test of Missile Defense System

[displacedtexan]

The headline says it all, folks!
How utterly ridiculous is this?


Weather Delays Full Flight Test of Missile Defense System
The Associated Press
Published: Dec 9, 2004


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Bad weather Wednesday forced the military to scrub the first full flight test of its national missile defense system in nearly two years.

"It is just heavy cloud cover," Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said of conditions Wednesday evening off the Alaskan coast.

The launch was being put on hold for 24 to 48 hours.

The $85 million test comes as the military is in final preparations to activate missile defenses designed to protect against an intercontinental ballistic missile attack from North Korea or elsewhere in eastern Asia.
more...
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB2XLYGI2E.html

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Someone tell Putin that the best defense against missile defense...

...is monitoring the Weather Channel.;)

[rooboy]

2. Too wet to light the fuses on the rockets, I guess. n/t

[soothsayer]

3. Hope Tommy Thompson doesn't tell folks the best time to attack

the US with missiles is when it's overcast....! (like he recently advised the terra-ists to attack our food supply)

[teryang]

4. $85 million dollars worth of hummer armor on a launch pad

...and it doesn't work when its cloudy. "You go to war with what you've got, not what you want."

This is another "healthy experience" folks. To know you can spend billions and not have what you want. I wonder if Rumsfeld goes to sleep at night thinking, I don't have what I want. Somehow, I don't think so.

[ixion]

5. our multi billion dollar, fair weather defense system

:eyes:

[struggle4progress]

23. Hey! Nobody would dare attack us when it's cloudy. eom

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Billions of dollars to provide a non-functional fantasy.... and our

boys are digging through the trash heaps in order to try and save their lives and limbs.

Tell me Donald, why don't you just go with the missile defense system that you have????? Fool.

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. Faith Based Defense System - Shrub asked for it, now he's got it

We just have to pray the weather holds out on the day of any attack. God will provide.

[BiggJawn]

8. Shhhh! Don't tell North Korea!

Launch on us when it's cloudy out....

POS system has more Pork in it than the Indiana State Fair!

[girl gone mad]

9. Will the missiles have..

GPS tracking units on them this time?

It's clear that, once again, they are doing whatever they can to make sure the odds are in their favor.

If my 6 years of college physics taught me anything, it's that missile defense won't work. And I don't mean that in the way that airplanes wouldn't work or space travel wouldn't work. There is real hard science that shows that any NMD system would be far too easy to bypass. But, as one of my professors used to put it: don't bite the hand that feeds you.

[Nihil]

10. This is just hysterical!

Just when you think that it can't get weirder, BushCo pulls off another!

$85M? For the first test in two years? A test that has to be conducted
in good weather or else the results will be even more laughable than in
the previous pathetic failures?

What is this system meant to do? Cause all of the Imperial enemies to
piss themselves laughing? Engender pity for the "local nutter"?

Who needs to take drugs? Talk about going down the rabbit hole ...

[radar]

16. Notify the Press

"Any missile attack on the United States during inclement weather will result in dire consequences for the attackers."

[Gasping4Truth]

11. DisplacedTexan, I'm sorry to hijack this thread ...

but I don't have enough posts to PM you.

Can I use a few paragraphs from your blog in a slideshow that I'm making? With due credit, of course.

I'm talking about the first few sentences in this post:
http://ascrivenerslament.blogspot.com/2004/12/sgt-dr-evil-busholiniscaptive-hearts.html

Sorry for the inconvenience, but i saw no other way to contact you personally.

[maddezmom]

12. kick

Because the launches will test several new aspects of the missile defense system, Lehner said the interceptor actually shooting down the target is not a primary goal of the mission.


The test is the first in which the interceptor uses the same booster rocket that the operational system uses, Lehner said.


Two previous tests scheduled for this year were delayed due to technical problems. In earlier testing, which critics derided as highly scripted, the interceptors went five-for-eight when launched with the goal of hitting target missiles.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=693&e=8&u=/ap/20041209/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/missile_defense

[midnight armadillo]

13. They want to SEE the test in action

They'll no doubt have a wide variety of instruments watching the test...with cloud cover they won't get the data they need.

It's a test, after all.

Of course, the whole idea of making a system 'operational' before it works utterly flies in the face of reason. So does strategic ballistic missile defense, for that matter.

[northzax]

24. stop being logical, damn you

having too much fun mocking, are we.

I'm suprised no one brought up the fact that this 'fair weather' system is being built (although not tested) in Alaska.

[Just Me]

14. So, if we're attacked,...let's hope the sun is shining?

Give me a break!!!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. Geez

Just when you think the Bushies couldn't be stupider they prove you wrong.

[IndianaGreen]

17. so what you are saying is that if it rains, it don't work!

How about cold days, or snowy days? Does it work on Mondays bettter than Fridays?

This is a waste of money of monumental proportions!

[Endangered Specie]

18. Kim Jong-Il: note to self: Attack infidels during Thunderstorm

[DeadManInc]

19. weather

You can't attack us, the weather is too bad! Thank God Bush is protecting us. What a fucking joke. I hope it fails miserably.

[maddezmom]

20. Pentagon Scrubs Missile-Defense Flight Test-2nd day in a row

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first flight test in nearly two years of a planned U.S. missile-defense shield has been scrapped two days in a row this week because of bad weather, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Friday.



Strong rain squalls over the Kwajalein atoll launch site in the central Pacific caused the latest postponement, Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said shortly after the decision to scrap the test. A new attempt might be made later in the day, he said.


The Pentagon had not previously publicized the test.


An exercise deemed successful may set the stage for President Bush (news - web sites) to declare the system on alert to shoot down a warhead that could be fired by a potential foe like North Korea (news - web sites).

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1895&ncid=1895&e=9&u=/nm/20041210/us_nm/arms_missile_usa_dc

[maddezmom]

30. wonder how much the "scrubbed tests" are costing??

:shrug:

[amazona]

21. because you know missiles only fly on sunny days!

These silly systems that don't work on cloudy days are a hoax on the taxpayer.

[tabasco]

22. The system works just fine.

It is designed to funnel massive amounts of money to corporations and it performs very well. Anyone with a brain knows this system has nothing to do with national defense, and, in fact, greatly reduces national security by wasting vast resources.

[Mokito]

25. In related news:

Department Of Defense scouting for Shamans with knowledge of ritual rain dances.

[displacedtexan]

26. They never mention the millions of debugging hours needed...

We all know the system just plain doesn't work; however, they never talk about how long it would take just to debug the initial programming.

Back in the 80's, the estimate was 9 million hours.

So they cheat the tests.

[central scrutinizer]

27. remember all of the previous "tests"?

Even when they knew exactly when their target would be launched, knew exactly the trajectory, knew there would be no "chaff" to confuse their technology, they were unable to "defend". But, who gives a shit, when you have a no-bid, cost-plus contract. Send us a couple more billion, we are heading back to the drawing board (snicker, nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

[NickB79]

28. Don't forget where these things are supposed to be located

Along the Alaskan coastline.

Clouds, rain and snow in Alaska? Never, no way I tells ya. It's sunny and clear 365 days a week up there, isn't it?

[Zerex71]

29. Yeah, because we always fight wars in good weather.