Boeing and the US Missile Defense Agency reported on the successful test of the GMD (Ground missile defense) interceptor system in an unusual mode.
After the launch, the three-stage launch vehicle separated the interceptor after testing the second stage, which made it possible to hit the target at a shorter distance.
- This was made possible thanks to a software update. The operator can choose between a two-and three-stage mode of operation of the rocket, - noted in Boeing, the manufacturer of anti-missiles for GMD.
- As strange as it sounds, American missiles did not know how to do this before. Such a strange and stupid "childhood disease" and a flaw, " writes the Nuclear Petrel. - Due to the need to work out all three stages, GMD has a large near "dead zone". In fact, it is necessary to immediately launch interceptors "with a margin", because it will not be possible to make a second interception.
This speaks in favor of the popular opinion that the US missile defense system is not a combat system, and a grand experiment and a set of prototypes for testing technologies.
Anton Valagin