Blasting Target From Sky, Key Test of Missile Defense System a Success

The U.S. military successfully conducted its most challenging test yet of its ballistic missile defense system, blasting an incoming target out of the skies over the Pacific Ocean.

In the test, an intermediate-range missile target was launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, approximately 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii. A ground-based radar detected the launch and relayed that information to a central system, which passed the data to the Aegis destroyer USS O'Kane.

That ship launched an SM-3 Block IA missile 11 minutes later to shoot down the incoming threat -- a process the military calls "birth to death" tracking.

"Initial indications are that all components performed as designed," the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement, which described it as "the most challenging test to date" of the Aegis BMD system.

The test was conducted by the MDA, using Lockheed Martin's shipboard Aegis combat system and a Raytheon missile interceptor, with U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS O'Kane and soldiers from the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command operating from the Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.

It was a crucial test for the program: The last two intercept tests of a separate U.S. ground-based missile defense, aimed at protecting U.S. soil, have failed, Reuters reported.

The "successful test demonstrated the capability of the first phase" of the European missile shield announced by President Barack Obama in September 2009, the MDA statement said.

"The two demonstration Space Tracking and Surveillance Satellites (STSS), launched by MDA in 2009, successfully acquired the target missile, providing stereo 'birth to death' tracking of the target," the statement said.

"The Lockheed Martin-led team has evolved Aegis from an anti-ship missile system to the basis for the U.S. approach to global missile defense," said Lisa Callahan, vice president of maritime ballistic missile defense programs for Lockheed Martin, in a statement about the test. "With this test, Aegis BMD proves that it can expand the battlespace and destroy ballistic missile threats earlier in their trajectory than ever before."

The defense system is meant to shield the U.S. from a potential ballistic missile attack, possibly from North Korea or Iran.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/15/military-successfully-tests-missile-defense/#ixzz1JnlXtZ9P

Spring Break Music Festival 2011

The Kwajalein Yacht Club sponsored yet another Spring Break Music Festival and as usual, it was a lot of fun. A few of the festivities included:

• Dunk Tank
• Many Talented Singers/Bands
• Chili Cook-off
• BBQ
• Slip-and-Slide
• Vendor Booths
• Home Brew Beer Garden
• Temporary Tattoos

It was a good time. I was there for the entire thing, helping set up the Yacht Club Ships Store in the beginning and enjoying the various activities all the way til the last band played. We really are lucky to have so many talented folks on this small piece of land.

What Do You Think?

Is it time for a new fender?

Yeah, I thought so too. But do you think there are any in the store here? No!
I'll have to try and get one in Honolulu on my way through for vacation in a few weeks.

Do You Know Where Flies Sleep?

I do!

Well, not all of them maybe.....

The other night I was out walking my cat. Yes; cat. It is against USAKA regulation for any animal to be outside unless they are on a leash. Just to clarify, you don't walk a cat, a cat walks you. If I even try to decide where we are going, the cat will do nothing but lay down and has to be carried back to the house. Also, he will never return to the house on his own....I can only let him wander as far as I'm willing to carry his 16 pound butt back to the house!

But I digress...

So I was out walking my cat, which is not a brisk event; there is a lot of exploring that happens....when I noticed that there were several flies (like houseflies) clinging to the ends of a palm frond. Next palm, same thing. Almost every palm tree I came to had at least a few flies attached to it.

We always talk about how the flies "go to bed" after the sun goes down around here but I didn't really think of where they may be going. I kind of half thought they were like the sun, when they go to bed here they are just getting started in some other part of the world. So I Googled it. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/604566.html

I tried to take a picture but it's kind of difficult because of the wind. The palm trees won't hold still and by the time I get close enough the flies are on to me and take off. If I ever manage to capture one on film, I'll make sure to post it.