Navy: Aegis SM3 strikes again

[Dr Mordrid]

The USS Lake Erie strikes again;

Link....

Military shoots down missile in test off Hawaii

HONOLULU (AP) - The U.S. military says it has intercepted a ballistic missile near Hawaii in a test.

The sea-based test Thursday was the military's first since an errant satellite was shot down earlier this year.

A target was fired from a decomissioned amphibious assault ship about 100 miles off the island of Kauai. It was a Scud-like missile with a range of a few hundred miles.

The USS Lake Erie fired two interceptor missiles at the target. It was shot down in its final seconds of flight about 12 miles above the Pacific Ocean.

The Lake Erie is a Navy cruiser based at Pearl Harbor. In February, the ship shot down a U.S. spy satellite in the Aegis defense program's first real-world mission.

[Mehen]

Thats cool - but they should be using railguns and lasers by now

[Jammrock]

Thats cool - but they should be using railguns and lasers by now

Too many power issues. We need something renewable and easily attainable like solar, but powerful like nuclear before we can really get into that sort of fun stuff on any sizeable scale..

[Nowhere]

In other words: something based on non-existant physics?

I havent's heard about anything that can beat nuclear when it comes to power output out of given size of package. Also - abundance of fuel makes it no worse than current "renevable resources". And with progress of tech it starts to be easily attainable (Toshiba "nuclear powerplant in a box" thing)

Now...if we only could get rid of irrational fear...

PS. Yeah, you can say I'm a supporter of nuclear energy
And I'm actually thinking about directing my career in a way that I have a chance to end up working in nuclear power plant (hey, they need even ordinary IT guys at such places ) which Poland will have to build in the next 15 years. A lot of non-immediatelly obvious incentives :
- ignorant people fleeding from the area
- slightly influences microclimate in a pleasent way
- Homer Simpson is my idol (but relax, I won't mention that during any possible interview )
- will be built in a really nice place: hilly lakeland with great nature (that one fits the generall trend in Europe from what I've heard, about areas around nuclear powerplants), close to the sea and one of the more culturally interesting aglomerations (how I know that already? There's no other place evaluated so thoroughly for the purpose...because one nuclear powerplant was nearing completion there 18 years ago, but...was abandoned due to panic after Chernobyl (2 billion 1990 USD down the drain))

Sorry for potentially hijacking the thread

PPS. One relevant thought...Doc, how likely it is that the tested missile was in fact...real Scud? :> (Scuds aren't exactly very hard to aquire...)