No fireball if it wasn't a nuke. Could have been an launch of some kind of interceptor. :yep:

In California back in the days of Nike there were underground magazines to store the SAMs before they put them out on the launcher.
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7...e9dd482490.jpg
^Underground Magazine
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/1...rfairfield.jpg
^Above ground launcher

Wouldn't surprise me if there were Patriot TELs hidden about the country just in case. The Avengers you see in Washington aren't good for squat in reality.

maybe it was not accidental and we splashed a bird sent courtesy of some unfriendly regime... :o

Here is an interesting question...

Where did this "missile" end up?

:hmmm:

Yeah, but if the location of the launch was out to sea and the navy claims not have any ships there that just leaves a sub, and unless it was an SSGN with a Tomahawk aimed at the moon, TLAMs and TASMs don't usually go to that kind of altitude, or indeed, leave such a thick contrail immediately behind them.
So, if it was an empty SLBM then either someone isn't doing the stores properly, or this was a planned fire mission and someone hasn't sent out the memos to the right sources.

Or, indeed, there is the frightening possibility that someone did just try to light up the US west coast, be it either from a freighter or a hostile boomer, although in the latters case it is doubly frightening that it managed to get so close to the US coastline undetected.
However, one would have thought that the US would not still be sitting pretty on DEFCON4 if that missile had hostile intentions.

A few theories, one of which indicates the Alaskan test ranges, however it's quite possible it either stayed in orbit or splashed into the Pacific.

Has anyone heard from Seattle lately? :hmmm: :haha:

US ICBMs/SLBMs stage about one minute after launch. We don't see the entire footage, but that should be looked for. Staging is unmistakable.

Alaska? LA is not even close. And that type of contrail wouldn't be visible. The earth is still round isn't it?

The old Sprint missile decommissioned during the Nixon Admin., leaves no long range contrail like last evenings event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLpLEgAS574

:hmmm:

D-5s range is +4000 miles, well within range, furthermore the boost phase of an SLBM is rather visible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl37UZvFsz0

Particularly considering the sun was behind it, IIRC, which means that it's silhouetted even more.

Still, it's a pretty stupid place to fire from if you're not going to flat trajectory into a city, talk about give away your position. :damn:

Yeah, I don't think it was an interceptor missile. A target for one, perhaps, but no, if it's not a plane contrail then it definitely looks like the smoke from a ballistic missile.

The Pentagon knows exactly what is going on. There are just too many sensors for them not to know.

An example.... Pave/Paws locations
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...WS%26BMEWS.png

Beale AFB certainly saw the launch.

I'm closer to Florida than Alaska is to LA and I cannot see Shuttle launches. But the SRBs are about the same as ICBM propulsors.

I'm hoping that this was a test launch that suffered a communications breakdown.

Which is a whole other problem when it comes to nuke delivery vehicles.

Heads will roll!

The launch itself must have taken place within 35 miles of LA for them to have seen it, this much we must surely both be able to agree on.

Where Alaska comes in, I meant as its destination, not its launch site.

Agreed on the sensors though, plus there are satellites IIRC which can spot the IR heat pulse from the boost phase of an SLBM or ICBM which then set off numerous alarms down the chain, scrambling the SAC, flushing the boomers, throwing the VP or whoever is next on the chain of command onto Kneecap. There should have been a rush of activity and a spike to DEFCON 3 at the very, very, very lowest, none of this happened.

Now either the US alert system has fallen apart since the end of the Cold War or this was a planned launch, or...as it's looking more and more likely, it's an aircraft contrail.

Damn RA mod for Dangerous Waters...with playable boomers.....