AIM-9X destroys ballistic missile

[Navaleye]

From the Telegraph here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/05/wjet105.xml).

You have to be very close to hit one with an AIM-9. The obvious countermeasure would be to keep it on the ground until no aircraft are in sight then fire it. The article suggests that the jet would need to be within 100 miles of the target. More like 10 IMHO.

[Affirmatron]

Like that happened as reported! All b@llox!

[maxburner]

I liked the casual use of the term ''modified AIM 9X''. :)

[Occasional Aviator]

What's maybe worth wondering about is HOW this sort of thing would be used. I don't think it would be practical to have jets on 'Q' to launch and get within 100 miles of a missile in its boost phase. Perhaps if you hung them off a persistent UAV that flew very high....

[Razor61]

Doesn't matter now that the ABL is nearing service!

[Navaleye]

Maybe I'm being dumb but a BM with tons of solid rocket propellant is a damn sight more attractive target than an FJ. So an ASRAAM could to the job just as well if not better because its faster and with a much longer range. Or is this all just BS?

[Razor61]

The ABL (Airborne Laser) has a range of several hundred kilometres and travels the speed of light, so why the need for a Sidewinder (or ASRAAM) to kill a BM?
The B747 ABL will be orbiting within a few hundred miles of rogue states as i assume that is what it was designed for.

[advocatusDIABOLI]

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha......................Hmmmmmm Ha Ha Ha Ha..... Ooooh my ribs hurt......... Ha

Advo:}

[Green Flash]

AIM-9X destroys ballistic missile
Yeh. Fired it thru the missile factory roof, probably.:rolleyes:

More likely the BM took out the 'winder!

[ORAC]

NCADE (http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/ncade-an-abm-amraam-03305/) will be an AMRAAM with a new second stage rocket and a modified AIM-9X IR seeker head. This was just a test flight of the modified seeker on a stock AIM-9X against an Orion sounding rocket.

http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/o/orion.jpg

Orion is the designation of a small American elevator research rocket. The Orion has a length of 5.60 meters, a diameter of 0.35 m, a launch weight of 400 kg, a launch thrust of 7 kN and a ceiling of 85 kilometers.

STRATFOR: (http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=299498) .....The successful Dec. 3 test was admittedly a rudimentary "second-try" test. It is also too early to say just how successful NCADE will prove, and its engagement envelope may be limited to short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. NCADE also has a competitor in a Lockheed-Martin program to launch a modified Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) interceptor from aircraft.

But ultimately, NCADE seeks to mount the seeker tested Dec. 3 (on the AIM-9X) on the longer-range Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), along with a second stage. The second stage will roughly double the AMRAAM's range, extending it out to 100 miles (giving the aircraft some stand-off distance). The AMRAAM is a well-established and proven missile (albeit in a different mission profile). It has already seen successful adaptation to a variety of ground-based modifications. The AMRAAM is also compatible with not only most U.S. fighter aircraft, but many foreign -- notably Israeli and Japanese -- fighters as well. Integration work would of course be necessary, but the commonality could make a mature NCADE as readily deployable as the PAC-3 system has already proven to be.

In other words, the phase of BMD intercept that has long languished behind the others in terms of progress saw a promising development Dec. 3. If it proves successful, it will offer a near-term and comparatively cheap technology that could be distributed to and deployed around the world -- and even (given its size) potentially mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles like a modified Predator-B.

Such a development would be a major step forward in the BMD field. The NCADE system is not constrained by fixed concrete silos in Alaska, California or Poland. It does not even require the deployment of a BMD-capable destroyer or cruiser equipped with Standard Missile-3 interceptors (of which the U.S. Navy hopes to have 18 outfitted by 2010). A successful NCADE program translates into a major step forward for BMD, making it easier to hit more missiles sooner in more places around the world -- especially places like Iran and North Korea, whose periphery is easily accessible to U.S. aircraft.....

[GreenKnight121]

Why would someone use rockets to research elevators?

Wouldn't it be better to let building engineers do that, and use the rockets for atmospheric research? :E

[West Coast]

"The ABL (Airborne Laser) has a range of several hundred kilometres"

Just how many of them do you think we're gonna have? Planes do break, matter of a fact they get grounded from time to time (as in the F-15 fleet)
Much rather have a robust, redundant and diverse capability to compete a given mission. For now we still have the money to do it.

[Razor61]

How many ballistic missiles will be fired at us in the next 10yrs? I'm sure a few B747s could manage it