Re: SM-3 Missiles

Thomas Schoene <taschoene@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

:buff82driver wrote:
:>
:> A missile might have stealth abilities against radar but there is no way
:> to mask the IR signature of a ballistic missile so I would think using
:> IR a SM-3 could destroy the target. I guess my idea (I'm sure the AF
:> and Navy have thought of this too and clearly they have with the ABL
:> 747) is akin. to one Dale Brown novel where the U.S. uses B-1s with
:> long range missiles to kill ballistic missiles in the boost phase over
:> enemy terrority.
:
:Boost phase is a different kettle of fish from SM-3's mid-course
:engagement. Boost-phase interceptors are very hard to design because
:they have to be exceptionally fast to cover the distance from launcher
:to target while the target is still boosting.

Don't be too surprised to see a boost-phase SM-3 at some point in the
future. Japan would certainly seem to be interested in one. Surveying
the web, one finds that SM-3 Block 1 is capable of about 3 k/s
velocities at (mid-course) intercept. SM-3 Block 2 is supposed to
manage 5 k/s velocities at intercept. If the KW can be lightened,
that should be enough to get at least some boost phase capability out
of it.

Real boost-phase interceptors (again according to web survey) need to
manage about 7 k/s intercept velocities. If we can assume similar
improvement from SM-3 Block 2 to SM-3 Block 3 that is apparently being
gotten in the step from Block 1 to Block 2, you'd have a full boost
phase system at that point.

This would let Japan load up their Kongos with a mix of SM-3s and, in
conjunction with the land-based PAC-3 interceptors they're buying,
have a three-tiered BMD system with boost-phase, midcourse, and
terminal interception capability.

--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw
.

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