Let's get real. They shot down a satellite. A satellite, by definition, is in orbit. The exact position of any object in orbit can be determined right now or any time in the future. We can know for a fact the dates and hours of the eclipses of the moon in the year 9080. That has absolutely nothing to do with hitting a missile, especially one that is accompanied by decoys. Instantly finding the position of an object of unknown trajectory by radar or heat sensors is a problem of much greater magnitude.

Besides, simply making some kind of atomic explosion is a very long way from making a nuclear warhead that must be small and rugged enough to withstand the vibration and extreme heat of reentry. The idea that Iran or North Korea could do that is ridiculous.

The whole star wars idea is just another "politics of fear" scheme to siphon more billions of our tax dollars into the black hole of the "military-industrial complex."

It doesn't take long after initial launch to figure out where an ICBM is aimed....and that calculation is guaranteed once the missile reaches it's apogee. The idea that an ICBM launch is a clandestine operation is naive....as soon as it's motor fires, those that need to know will know....unless we shoot down all of their satellites.

If it is that easy to find the exact course of a missile, it should be just as easy to put small steering jets on the missile to cause it to fly a slightly zig-zag course. There has never been a weapon that didn't spawn a counter weapon. There is no way anymore that you can threaten the whole world and remain safe yourself.

You didn't even address the issue of why we need the damned things anyway and how the likes of Iran and North Korea could ever develop missiles that could threaten us. Third world nations have demonstrated already that they don't need sophisticated weaponry to cause us grief. The age of emperialism is over, and the whole world seems to know it except the neocon nuts in Washington.

What about decoys? Could they shield the real payload from radar? Could they require $100 Million dollar missile launch? It could be an inflatable metallic ballon, in the shape of a missile. You know, shaped like we see in the Macy's Parade, but to appear like a missile nose..

Doing the math to figure out the destination of a missile is a lot easier than what it would take to engineer "small steering jets" and associated plumbing and control inputs onto a missile warhead and/or one or more rocket stages, besides that, the math is already built in to our missile warning systems. Everything that adds weight to a missile decreases it's range...zig-zagging would certainly hinder it's range, not to mention the extra fuel needed to keep the original range. All the above would add to the cost of the weapon...at the risk of negatively affecting it's capabilities.

As for North Korea and Iran...never is a long fucking time, you sure you want to make that claim? The third-world nations you talk about, their greatest weapon is the media. Our hinderance is being caught up with trying to kill bad guys and be all nicey-nice about it.

Of course though, someone will develop a new neat trick to defeat ABM systems. You pick up a stick, I grab a rock...so on and so forth. The point is to stay ahead of your foe....or stop advancing and be in the unenviable position of having to bring a knife to a gunfight.

While the rocket is still lit it sticks out like a sore thumb. I don't believe anything exists that will hide the thermal plume.Radar can be interfered with my balloons and chaff, but momentarily as any radar worth anything will be able to pick out what's moving and accerlerating--and at a high rate--as opposed to what's essentially stationary. I'd says its is at least as hard to hide an ICBM launch as it is easy to hide the warhead after seperation from the missile.

The Navy' TMD is designed to kill the weapon when the warhead is still on the missile. This latest test shows simply it could hit a warhead, too.

Plumes....brings up a funny story, to me at least. When I was doing test and eval on the Cobra, we had added plume detectors to the ALE-39 countermeasures system. They looked like fish-eyes. Problem with the system was that when they were flying around with the system in "auto", simply flying over a construction site with welding going on would set the plume detectors off and the plane would start shitting out chaff and flares....