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From: warack@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Christopher Warack)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Anti-Balistic Missiles Now
Message-ID: <1990Dec15.014149.16495@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 15 Dec 90 01:41:49 GMT
References: <1990Dec14.002807.27573@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept.
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From: warack@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Christopher Warack)
In article <1990Dec14.002807.27573@cbnews.att.com> bobmcc@tcs.com (Bob McCormick) writes:
>From: bobmcc@tcs.com (Bob McCormick)
>From: swilliam@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (Williams)
>
>|> >>If not, how does a carrier battle group defend itself from incoming
>warheads?
>|> 
>|> Aircraft carriers have various "lines of defense" against anti-shipping
>|> missiles:
>|> 
>       {description of defense zones deleted}
>
>Yes, the carriers have an elaborate system for defense againt anti-shipping
>missles, but these are usually air-launched or surface-launched
>(or sub-launched?) "medium-sized" missiles (my term).  I think the original
>post concerned ballistic missiles, which are larger and launched from
>further away.  
>
>Could a ballistic missile be accurately targetted at a ship convoy moving at
>20-30 knots, even it it was travelling in a straight line?  

How about some blue sky here:  stick a GPS receiver in it -- so it knows
where it is; feed it a link from something like an AWACS or RORSAT that
knows where the ship is; add maneuverability (and stir till thick :-).

Still wouldn't be ultra-accurate given GPS errors at high speeds and any
lag in a data link.  Also, there would be ECM to contend with, maybe.

Manueverable RV's are around (MARV's) but I don't know how much they can
do.

>What is the set-up time for the missile targetting information?  
>For example, if an airplane or small boat spotted a convoy, you could estimate
>the location of the convoy in the next hour or so, with a certain error,
>probability, which could be large.  Could a missile be quickly re-programmed
>and fired in under an hour?

Theoretically, yes; given a big enough computer and a "hot link" to the
ready missile.  In reality, ????

>Obviously, the missile could not be expected to hit the deck of a moving
>ship, i would think this scenario may be realistic only for
>nuclear-tipped missiles.
>
>Bob McCormick   Teknekron Communications Systems
>bobmcc@tcs.com  Berkeley, CA, USA

Chris

--
Christopher A. Warack                   warack@eecs.umich.edu
Graduate Dept, EECS			(313) 665-4789
University of Michigan