On 2010-09-03, Jon Elson wrote:
DoN. Nichols wrote:
So -- who knows what your thing would have done in practice. :-)

Our people also worked a whole lot on this in the star wars programs,
they went far enough
to send up rockets with seeker heads that would try to discern the
decoys from the
dummy reentry vehicles. What worked best was to observe the rate of
cooling of
the objects as they flew through space after separating from the bus.
The dummys
(weight the same as real warheads in reentry vehicles) stayed warm, the
decoys
(something like balloons) cooled more quickly. They also did some
kinetic kill
intercepts, some worked, quite a number didn't.

We were allowed a certain number of test missiles a year under the START
treaties,
and tried to get as much info out of those as possible. So, while the
site at Kwajalein
recorded the impacts of the RV's in the ocean, they also fired a variety
of seeker and
interceptor missiles at the incoming test shots and also played many
laser tag games
and radar experiments. Much of that is still secret stuff, but some
thin details have
been let out. Kwajalein is supposed to be the most secret and secure US
site in the world.

Jon, one would think, that to prevent decoys from cooling too quickly,
all one needs is to put a larger version of chemical hand warmer in
them. Interesting stuff, the cat and mouse game. Especially when the
Russians and the Americans are not sure if their decoy and intercept
ideas will work in actual practice.

i