Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

[blazespinnaker]

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...BM-at-CHINA%21

It's MEGA news.

[gnk]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...BM-at-CHINA%21

It's MEGA news.

Let's think this through:

World Bank Pres says Gold (China has very little compared to its economy) and Chinese Yuan can form a future SDR - backhanded appeasement?

Missile Launched.

China responds with a downgrade of US Sovereign debt and Capital Controls.

All just days before the G20 meeting, a week after Bernanke's QE2.

These things are timed, folks, for impact. These are not intended for public consumption - but sovereign reaction.

It's a chess match.

[ASH]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

Or it's a sounding rocket or somebody's science experiment. Neither the US nor China launches missiles for sovereign impact unannounced. They hold "exercises" and invite camera crews. (But, of course, I agree that the other items are connected to the G20 meeting -- just not this mystery rocket.)

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

Probably a Jetliner .. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40087187...news-security/

[gnk]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

Or it's a sounding rocket or somebody's science experiment. Neither the US nor China launches missiles for sovereign impact unannounced. They hold "exercises" and invite camera crews. (But, of course, I agree that the other items are connected to the G20 meeting -- just not this mystery rocket.)

Like I said, it doesn't matter what we're told it is. It's for someone else (China) to figure out.

I'm going with the former Nato Ambassador/Defense Deputy's explanation on this one. Those old guys sometimes let the truth slip - or are told what to say.

Keep 'em guessing is the game.

[seanm123]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

Besides the USA, I believe only the Russians are operating long range ballistic missile nuke subs in the Pacific, and they have been actively test firing their new missile the Bulava elsewhere in the White Sea. Their Northern Fleet just launched a Bulava Missile a few days ago from Project 955 class sub. The Russians may be doing missile trials in the Pacific too, perhaps a bit too close to LA?





President Dmitry Medvedev admiring the new 955 class submarine Yuriy Dolgorukiy

[gnk]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

Karl Denninger, as usual, is going over the top with this one speculating that it could be someone else's. I don't believe it. That would be akin to an act of war, and the current global situation isn't near that kind of scenario.

[ASH]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

Besides the USA, I believe only the Russians are operating long range ballistic missile nuke subs in the Pacific, and they have been actively test firing their new missile the Bulava elsewhere in the White Sea. Their Northern Fleet just launched a Bulava Missile a few days ago from Project 955 class sub. The Russians may be doing missile trials in the Pacific too, perhaps a bit too close to LA?

None of the big boys launch SLBMs off the other guys' coasts. It looks too much like a sneak attack.

Time was, we had the Russian boomers all bottled up near their own ports. They developed very long range SLBMs because they couldn't reliably defeat SOSUS, and had to plan on launching from close to home. I'd be surprised if that has changed much, since the fall of the USSR.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

None of the big boys launch SLBMs off the other guys' coasts. It looks too much like a sneak attack.

That's for sure.

The U.S. has long been operating radar stations along its coast lines scanning for SLBM's rising out of coastal waters. I commanded a crew at such a site myself, in the early 1970's. An unexpected missile popping out of the water would have made us, and the crew at NORAD (Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado) very alert, real quick.

[jpatter666]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

None of the big boys launch SLBMs off the other guys' coasts. It looks too much like a sneak attack.

Time was, we had the Russian boomers all bottled up near their own ports. They developed very long range SLBMs because they couldn't reliably defeat SOSUS, and had to plan on launching from close to home. I'd be surprised if that has changed much, since the fall of the USSR.

Israeli boomer?

[jacobdcoates]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

I wonder if the Pacific Fleet in San Diego is still in port?

If it is, then SLBM was one of ours. If it was not ours, then the Pacific Fleet would be out actively pinging the living daylights out of the Pacific Ocean looking for the boomer that launched it and the Pentagon would be majorly pissed, not saying "I don't know". I think it was the US sending a message to someone else(China?) or given the recent competence in GOV these days, a major FUBAR.

[ASH]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

I wonder if the Pacific Fleet in San Diego is still in port?

If it is, then SLBM was one of ours. If it was not ours, then the Pacific Fleet would be out actively pinging the living daylights out of the Pacific Ocean looking for the boomer that launched it and the Pentagon would be majorly pissed, not saying "I don't know". I think it was the US sending a message to someone else(China?) or given the recent competence in GOV these days, a major FUBAR.

These are excellent reasons why this is unlikely to have been an SLBM at all.

[jacobdcoates]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

ASH,

I agree, But I have a hard time thinking of another way to launch a rather large missile off the coast of LA without see the launch platform.

[ASH]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

ASH, 35 off the coast

I agree, But I have a hard time thinking of another way to launch a rather large missile off the coast of LA without see the launch platform.

Are we discounting the possibility that this was just a jet contrail viewed from a weird angle (see blazespinnaker's post)? Still, I have to admit that if this was a rocket at all, it is very odd that it can't be attributed.

The only country which would be so provocative as to launch an SLBM off someone else's coast is North Korea... but I didn't think they have subs capable of (a) sneaking close to LA undetected, or (b) launching ballistic missiles, for that matter.

I suppose that leaves "DoD test of secret hardware", but every other time we launch rockets off California for things like missile defense tests, the Pentagon announces the launches.

I just don't see the "US sending a message to China" angle -- (a) we've had ballistic missile subs and a huge nuclear arsenal for decades; firing a missile off our own shore doesn't convey any information to anyone; (b) any implied threat of military confrontation -- with nuclear weapons, no less -- over the G20 summit is so disproportionate and outside our normal approach as to be loony; (c) again, there was no need to conduct such a demonstration within view of LA... if this was any sort of message to someone other than the US, the launch could have taken place elsewhere.

So far, I don't see the confluence of motive and opportunity, so I find either SNAFU, hoax, or not-a-rocket the most likely explanations.

[ASH]

Re: Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

Probably a Jetliner .. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40087187...news-security/

From the AP via Washington Post:

One expert called it an optical illusion. "It's an airplane that is heading toward the camera and the contrail is illuminated by the setting sun," said John Pike, director of the U.S.-based security analyst group globalsecurity.org.

Pike said the object could not have been a rocket because it appeared to alter its course.

"The local station chopped up the video and so it's hard to watch it continuously," Pike said. "But at one place you can see it has changed course - rockets don't do that."

Pike said he didn't understand why the military had not recognized the contrail of an aircraft. "The Air Force must ... understand how contrails are formed," he said. "Why they can't get some major out to belabor the obvious, I don't know."