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Japanese ship intercepts ballistic missile in test off Hawaii

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Good going! Now let's see if they all can do it without being warned that a test missle is going to be fired....then I'll be impressed.

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wow, thats great. as long as the bad guys also tell us exactly where and when they are going to fire a missile we should be able to shoot it down.

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Open Book Exam, scoring 100 out of 100 ! what's the fun?!

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war games - with tax money.

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Gurukun at 03:40 PM JST - 29th October

Good going! Now let's see if they all can do it without being warned that a test missle is going to be fired....then I'll be impressed.

bobcatfish at 04:12 PM JST - 29th October

wow, that's great. as long as the bad guys also tell us exactly where and when they are going to fire a missile we should be able to shoot it down.

Four Kongo Class destroyers means that there is a at least 1 in the sea ready 24/7. We have spy satellites for warn us if North Korea try something dangerous and the US have a much better warning system for protect the US bases in Japan.

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These test do not tell you the exact time when the missiles will be fired nor the trajectory in which way it will be fired at so the test is very close to a really event.(I'm not sure if they even tell you which firing site the rockets will be fired at)

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all U.S. made equipment, nothing new here.

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When are we leaving this medieval display of muscle play behind and start seriously talking to each other. All I see is the American driven neo-conservative mystification of illusive enemies.

In some generations people will look back and wonder what the logic of all this aggressive war talk and display of power was, like we now look back to the times before WWII.

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Title is messed up. I thought the ship got hit.

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160 km above the pacific? that's outer space, above 100 km. is this article accurate? can they shoot something that high?

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Bholder at 07:38 PM JST - 29th October

160 km above the pacific? that's outer space, above 100 km. is this article accurate? can they shoot something that high?

Ballistic missile

A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target.

Source: Wikipedia

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A nice display of defensive fire. Same thing will happen to incoming Red Chinese and North Korean missiles.

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"A nice display of defensive fire. Same thing will happen to incoming Red Chinese and North Korean missiles."

How about missiles with maneuverable MIRVs, or incoming maneuverable LACMs?

You'll need help from the United States, as 4 Kongos with AEGIS and a few Patriot batteries owned by Japan are simply not enough in a 'Red Chinese' saturation attack with hundreds of inbound missiles.

Yuriotani, still want the United States off of Japanese soil?

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Am I the only one that thinks this smacks of hypocrisy? Japanese seem to get awfully upset when kim jon's military shoots off a missile, but apparently its different when the Japanese self defnse force does it because they are on the good side? Its about time that this country quits trying to emulate their big red white n blue brother seriously think about diplomacy. and not the kind used to shoehorn Japanese corporations in to take advantage of less developed countries but invest in humanity, share their technology and make it their goal to prosper their neighbors. this is not a zero sum game and the returns could far outweigh the returns their selfishly motivated moves to date have yielded.

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Am the only one that thinks this smacks of hypocrisy? Japanese seem to get awfully upset when kim jon's military shoots off a missile, but apparently its different when the Japanese self defnse force does it because they are on the good side?

Probably. THere's a world of difference in the missile's capability for offensive/defensive reasons. SM-3's and Patriots are placed for defensive purposes, while NK's Taepodong's are offensive.

Plus, Japan doesn't fire its missiles over NK airspace.

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An SM-3 missile is guided not ballistic, this means you need to designate the target via radar lock before launching. For that reason the SM-3's are much more applicable as a defensive weapon rather than an offensive one so I don't see the hypocrisy in Japan using them.

Hitting a target half the diameter of a city bus that's moving at multi-Mach speeds - and doing so from at least 100 miles away (it was 100 miles UP... they didn't mention how much horizontal range was involved) - is a pretty decent accomplishment even IF they were told in advance when the missile was going to be launched.

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mushroomcloud, the trick is to hit them before they deploy the mirvs. If China uses all of their missiles on Japan, what would they have left to defer an attack on China? Oh about Americans, would rather have them anytime over Chinese thugs.

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@ mushroomcloud

The SM-3 missiles are not capable of hitting some type of ICBMs with MIRVs yet, on the other hand you don't need SM-3 to shoot down cruise missiles, AEGIS with AWACs has enough capability to track incoming low altitude targets by the hundreds and SM-2 will be able to shoot all of them down. I also do not believe PRC is ready to shoot hundred ICBMs into Japan which will pretty much empty their arsenal opening a wide open target for US ICBMs which will scorch mainland china to dust with US having no fear of retaliation.

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American driven neo-conservative mystification of illusive enemies.

When did Obama and the Democrats in power, with a majority in Congress become "neo-conservative"? Please enlighten us.

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this is not a zero sum game and the returns could far outweigh the returns their selfishly motivated moves to date have yielded.

Tell this to Shina, intended, because they think it is. This test was about Japanese defense. So you get over it.

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I heard some guys just mentioned my name ^^!!! BTW, this kinds of anti-missile tech is not really a break through, and besides, if that is really the case, why does Japan still need U.S.'s help if it can defense itself ^^?! This anti-missile test can only scare off North Korean.

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mushroomcloud at 05:32 PM JST - 29th October all U.S. made equipment, nothing new here.

Agree. US equipment is good. Chinese ones (copies of Soviet ones), are crappy.

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I agree with mushroomcloud, a saturation attack is unstoppable and not even the US can save Japan if that happen. North Korea have hundreds of ballistic missiles and can arm them with chemical weapons, obviously a missile attack from China can be more devastating because they can fire nukes. The only thing that stop them from make demands is the US nuclear umbrella and even so they keep threatening us.

Now about the idea that "they can't expend all their missiles in Japan because that open them to an US/Russia/India attack". We don't say something similar about China don't risk conflict with Japan because it hurt business before? Do the leaders of North Korea look rational to you? They call the south koreans their brothers and they killed 46 of them in the Cheonan incident. Do the leaders of China look like their "peaceful rise" can be trusted? Because lately they look enough "extremely hysterical" to start to make me think that the only way we can have "real peace" is if we japanese stop being so naive about the "good will and self-control of repressive governments" and build our own nukes like India.

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to yuriotani... if japan want to play war game, go to someone with your level, your big brother China busy dealing with your American parent. so stop dreaming of going to war with them...

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kyoken at 05:33 PM JST - 29th October When are we leaving this medieval display of muscle play behind and >start seriously talking to each other. All I see is the American driven >neo-conservative mystification of illusive enemies.

And I guess you DIDN'T SEE the NKorean missle fly over Japan. Twice. or China's expansion in the East and South China Seas or their the military buildup.

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mushroomcloud at 09:31 PM JST - 29th October You'll need help from the United States, as 4 Kongos with AEGIS and a >few Patriot batteries owned by Japan are simply not enough in a 'Red >Chinese' saturation attack with hundreds of inbound missiles.

A "Chinese saturation attack with hundreds off inbound missles" would trigger the US-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty and China as you know it will be blown off the map.

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roobus, I do not advocate war but if Red China wants to start one.

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I think that this demonstration is aimed at NK and a chance to test the system at the same time. There isn't a weapon system available that would stop a Chinese attack and I doubt the Chinese are dumb enough to provoke the response. The dear little pipsqueak, on the other hand, does not have the capabilities of the Chinese but might do something insane. This system could stop that before it turned Tokyo into a wasteland. Well worth the effort.

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YuriOtani at 01:18 AM JST - 30th October roobus, I do not advocate war but if Red China wants to start one.

Red China is not stupid enough to start a war. Especially one they can't win. Or would take too big a toll even if they could. The only remote possibility is that the MIlitary take control of the Politburo, the Chinese people rise against their totalitarian government and they decide to use a war to remain in power.

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they used to live peacefully together you know, japan and china... for thousand of years. there is so many connection between people of two country, some are even family. china not even asking japan for compensation when japan lose the war, and you can see Russia occupying 4 japanese island in the north, and America colonize japan for +50years now, and japan pouring billion of yen of ODA to help chinese economy in their bad day few decades ago . how they end up this way...hmm

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A "Chinese saturation attack with hundreds off inbound missles" would trigger the US-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty and China as you know it will be blown off the map."

-Ossan, yes, and Japan will cease to exist. That's why it will never happen.

"and japan pouring billion of yen of ODA to help chinese economy in their bad day few decades ago . how they end up this way...hmm"

-roobus, the amount is $32 billion USD of ODA given to China over a period of 32 years. As a point of reference on how small that is, China gave a similar amount to Japan in JGB (Japan Government Bond) purchases in the first 7 months of this year, while loaning the U.S. $1.1 trillion, and the European Union $640 billion, as both developed entities need this money for financial life support. Point is, look who is helping who now.

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cloud.

We went over this. China's only buying foreign debt to keep their currencies low which is the only significant advantage they have. Only an imbecile would deem purchasing bonds as loans with covenants.

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mushroomcloud; Don`t feed them they have an agenda and an unchangeable blinkered rose tinted view of any and everything Japanese.

There will be no conflict between anyone. Japan is probably showing their citizens that they are ready for anything etc... Not only would China and Japan be devasted in every way if there were a conflictm the world economy would be destroyed for decades and neither country will allow that. North korea is a different kettle of fish though.

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war games - with tax money

"zeikin dorobo" strike again

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mushroomcloud at 05:11 AM JST - 30th October A "Chinese saturation attack with hundreds off inbound missles" would >trigger the US-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty and China as you know it will >be blown off the map." -Ossan, yes, and Japan will cease to exist. That's why it will never >happen.

OK, There will never be a "Chinese saturation attack with hundreds of inbound missles" because Japan will cease to exist. That makes a hell of alot of sense.

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@ mushroomcloud:'A Saturation attack' was a very unwise way to show of force,too clumsy and lacking the element of 'surprise' and that was totally unnecessary! The so called anti-ballistic missle defense was really a 'gimmick' and a political 'show' instead of any real meaning of capabilities. The defense side higly relying on the intelligences alarmed by early warning satellites. These spy satellites were like sentry watching the earth and incoming IRBM/ICBM?SLBM...They could be destroyed by ASAT missles once they flew over China! After killing these 'sky spies'the defenser was like blinde knowing nothing about where and when a coming ballistic projectile....so the frontline is in space and China was highly capable to do this task since 2007! No worries...China has the longer lance than any other asian countries, our existence was solid!!

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Nothing like having a few Chinese on here trying to steer the conversation.

The test was a good one, and it shows some capability in case the mentally ill in NK throw some stuff up in the air. That's all they can do at the moment with only 4 ships. But it's a capability that they must grow.

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Sadly we can't put links, but there is a cool video in YouTube of the test. Just google "Japan Aegis BMD (JFTM-4)".

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Listen people, when the shooting starts within a minute it will turn into a full scale exchange, and since everyone that have missile is afraid of Electro magnetic waves, they want to launch everything they got on the ground, meaning one thing, they know already that projectile will fall down from the sky once they enter that field created by nukes, and since they do not know how long the field will stay up for, they will launch(Everything). Anti-missile ship is practically usless in that senario. When the next war starts, its the end. And listen, if anybody is watching, the globe is going through a cycle right now, (They call it global warming) but I think it is something else. Its' an asselerated heating, meaning the core of the earth is unstable, and that is caused by all the war activities going on the surface (Include dropping of large ordinances), and so any really big explosion like a full nukes exchange on the surface of the earth will bring on the end of time. So all you war hawks, the next war will definetley be the end so stop playing with our lives.

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but I think it is something else. Its' an asselerated heating, meaning the core of the earth is unstable, and that is caused by all the war activities going on the surface

I think you may find that man kind knows more about space than we do about what goes on deep under our feet. We have barely even scratched the surface of our earth but you are calling out mortal would on a paper cut?

However I tend to agree with your other chit chat about the missile defense system as it presently stands. The point is that after a few more years it could be much more affective against multiple missile strikes and speaking of space, who knows of the star wars capability currently hovering above our heads.

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@ KuYani

Unfortunately not all missiles are readily able to be launched due to lack of launch pads and the liquid propellant missiles are a dead give away since it is easily spotted prepping for launch. Another thing is missiles that had been intercepted will not nuclear detonate so EM pulses will not occur therefore both PAC3 and SM3 are operational in such a case.

One thing I would like to point out is that this test probably taken place because the Kirishima failed the last time not being able to acquire the target.

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Why isn't anyone talking about the price of Peace? A Gandhi out there somewhere?

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