Me too.
Yes, it would make an effective political statement and who's to say that our powers that be would pass the statement on to the general public. Public knowledge of a foreign power launching off the SoCal coast would surely result in a demand for a boost to our ABM program. And that would have unknown political fallout these days. (conspiracy theory anyone? )
The 10 minute burn is a problem for me, too, as is the lack of reports from ground observers. Maybe the reports are out there and just haven't been widely reported.
As for the 10 minute burn, I don't know that its even possible to find a fuel and mass ratio combination that could allow a rocket to burn for 10 minutes while remaining visible from a single point on the surface. After all, the rocket would have to thrust at more than 1g acceleration just to avoid falling out of the sky. In ten minutes its going to burn a lot of fuel so its got to be big, maybe to big to be submarine launched. It really doesn't sound like the performance needed for a practical ICBM.
"Intermittent missile firing operations 00001Z to 2359Z daily Monday thru Sunday in the Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range," the warning said. "The majority of missile firings take place 1400Z to 2359Z and 0001Z to 0200Z daily Monday thru Friday."
rjaypeters wrote:"Intermittent missile firing operations 00001Z to 2359Z daily Monday thru Sunday in the Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range," the warning said. "The majority of missile firings take place 1400Z to 2359Z and 0001Z to 0200Z daily Monday thru Friday."
You mean our gutting our military research and spending in favor of handing out money in socialist redistribution schemes has caused us to fall behind in national defense? No way!
Not too much danger of falling behind anyone else's military when the United States outspends, I think, more than the other top fourteen militaries in the world (see below). The last time I looked, a few years back, the number was eleven, not fourteen (or more).
"The USA with its massive spending budget, is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for just under half of the world total, at 46.5% of the world total"
It's not only about how much money one spends, but also on how it is spent and on what. Every military leader with a modicum of competence wonders if the money is being spent on the right things for the next war.
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