A failure, of either nerve or capability

It’s in the news that Iran claims to have tested 9 missiles, and that the US Military confirms at least 7 of the tests.

This is disappointing news.  Not because Iran tested the missiles, but because the US didn’t shoot them down.

I thought this back when North Korea was testing its missiles, and I think it now: whenever a rogue state puts together a missile test, the US should have Aegis cruisers nearby, and shoot down the missiles.

Consider it real-world testing for SDI.

Consider it the finest in diplomacy.  A chance to really hurt the reputations of our enemies, without hurting anyone.

Consider it a cold, hard threat.

Those missile tests are a threat.  They need to be countered.  Shoot them down.

Missile defense strikes again

I’m a big fan of SDI / “Star Wars”, because I’m a big fan of keeping people from murdering Americans, and a big enemy of thugs and terrorists. So one thing I will be trying to track here is successful missile defense tests. Like this one

LIHU’E, Kaua’i — An interceptor missile launched from Kaua’i hit its target yesterday in the first such test in which a target was dropped from an airplane.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile was fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands to intercept a target launched from an Air Force C-17 aircraft at 4:16 p.m., the U.S. Missile Defense Agency reported.

The THAAD missile hit its target six minutes later.

“It was an amazing feat,” said Col. William Lamb, THAAD project manager for the Missile Defense Agency.

The target had a dummy warhead that separated from its propellant base — another first for the testing program — which increased the challenge for the interceptor to detect and “kill” the correct piece of the target, Lamb said.

Newsbusters also mentioned that on June 5, the Navy also had a successful sea-based missile defense test.

Off the coast of Kauai, the Navy reports it shot down a dummy ballistic missile in the last seconds of flight in another test of U.S. defenses. It was the first such shootdown since a Navy cruiser destroyed a failing satellite over the Pacific earlier this year.

At 2:13 p.m. ET, a Scud-like target was fired from the decommissioned amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli off the Hawaiian island. Four minutes later the USS Lake Erie launched two interceptor missiles that destroyed the target in its final seconds about 12 miles high and 100 miles off Kauai.

Hat Tip: Ace