Originally Posted by
Spunky Monkey
I am very much surprised that this was actually made public, after all, I can't see our collective foe being able to track our test launches. Unless we let everyone know we are conducting a test and all they see on their monitors is a huge whale fart, a float popping to the surface and it all goes quiet.
Impossible to keep a missile test “quiet” for several reasons:
1. For U.S. missile tests, the U.S. still provides notifications to Russia under the 1988 Ballistic Missile Launch Notification Agreement.
2. For U.S. and UK sub missile tests, Notice to Mariners (and NOTAM) are announced with closure areas for the launch zone.
3. A large ballistic missile after launch makes a highly detectable thermal signature. Any country with the appropriate space-based assets can detect such an event.
Easier to keep the results of a missile test quiet, which is what the Brits did for the 2016 test.