A missile fired from a Navy ship struck an ailing U.S. spy satellite Wednesday night and probably succeeded in destroying a toxic fuel tank on board. (Don’t miss the slide show.)
Nice to know the system works as designed, and perhaps better than designed. Kind of leaves all those “It can’t be done!” sorts with a bit of free-range egg on their faces, though.
However, some countries had expressed doubts about the operation, with some such as Russia characterizing the operation as little more than a thinly veiled arms test.
Well, duh! Of course that’s what it was. Face it–the odds that the fuel tank would have survived reentry were likely minimal. This was a good operational test of some advanced capabilities in a real-world situation. I suspect it was also to send a message to some of our not-quite-enemies.
It will be interesting to see how the message is received.
Edit, 2/21/2008 1435: Wired had a link to the navy video: