A bit of a mystery

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

You're right, I'm just looking at this:



That's definitely a ballistic missile of some sort...

Holy $hit! Good video.

Yea that is a big bird. Guessing SLBM or a large interceptor missile.

Old dude in the video was wrong though the only live (yes a live nuke) SLBM test by the US was launched from the Pacific at a target in the Indian Ocean. It was called Frigate Bird.

[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Old dude in the video was wrong though the only live (yes a live nuke) SLBM test by the US was launched from the Pacific at a target in the Indian Ocean. It was called Frigate Bird.

But he was right at the same time. Test launches of the missiles are conducted in the Atlantic, that's where all the necessary facilities are located at. Off the coast of SoCal wouldn't be a logical place for this either when we have Barking Sands.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

Off the coast of SoCal wouldn't be a logical place for this either when we have Barking Sands.

Not if they are doing a interceptor test from Barking Sands for the THAAD or some other system.

[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Not if they are doing a interceptor test from Barking Sands for the THAAD or some other system.

Yeah, but if they had a test for that they would work around it not throw a dart at the map and just launch it from there. Well, you would think.

[Rockstar]

It caused a stir no doubt think maybe it was done to watch someones comms net light up and see who started talking to whom and from where?

Maybe Al Haig finally got to push the button he never got to during those few minutes he was in charge.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

Yeah, but if they had a test for that they would work around it not throw a dart at the map and just launch it from there. Well, you would think.

Maybe they wanted a test where the blue side didn't know where the OPFOR was going to launch from or when. So they launched from an unusual area to test the system's ability to handle a surprise attack.

[Oberon]

Some of the chaps over on stratpages think that it might be a misident'd commercial contrail, but tbh, to me at least, that looked like a missile. There was no NOTAM released before the launch, and news sources seem to state that NORAD and other traditional ICBM detection services didn't pick anything up, to the extent that they're using the footage released by the news agency to try and investigate it.

All a bit confusing really. I wonder if we'll ever know...

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Plays like a wishlist for the Airforce...

No mention of Trident or Tomahawk as potential solutions.

[Platapus]

The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a missile. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.


<slipping on sunglasses>

Have you seen this really cool pen I have?

[Rockstar]

I finally saw the video on the news tonight. My initial impression and gut feeling when viewing it was that of a contrail from an aircraft. The brightness of the object looked to me as if it was reflecting the sun rather than a burn from a rocket motor. Also saw what looked like darker smoke but it was just the shadow of the contrail.

[Molon Labe]

Well, I'm starting to accept the contrail hypothesis.

The FAA says they didn't have any other reports about this. If this was a missile, lots of people would have seen it, pilots in the area especially. The radio would have been going nuts. No other reports mean it only looked this way from the particular spot where the camera was, ergo, contrail of an approaching aircraft.

I'd really like the pilot/cameraman to be interviewed so we can find out why this was reported as a missile. Did these people actually see the launch, or were they doing something else and then looked west and saw a "cloud", already formed, and just assumed the worst? Because it was reported as a missile launch from a specific point in the ocean, I've thought this whole time that the people in that helicopter actually saw the "missile" from a point in time only seconds from when it emerged from the surface, watched it climb, and could see the point on the surface where the smoke trail started. I guess I assumed that they wouldn't make an assumption that would raise a huge alarm. Doom on me.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

Well, I'm starting to accept the contrail hypothesis.

The FAA says they didn't have any other reports about this. If this was a missile, lots of people would have seen it, pilots in the area especially. The radio would have been going nuts. No other reports mean it only looked this way from the particular spot where the camera was, ergo, contrail of an approaching aircraft.

I'd really like the pilot/cameraman to be interviewed so we can find out why this was reported as a missile. Did these people actually see the launch, or were they doing something else and then looked west and saw a "cloud", already formed, and just assumed the worst? Because it was reported as a missile launch from a specific point in the ocean, I've thought this whole time that the people in that helicopter actually saw the "missile" from a point in time only seconds from when it emerged from the surface, watched it climb, and could see the point on the surface where the smoke trail started. I guess I assumed that they wouldn't make an assumption that would raise a huge alarm. Doom on me.

How could I forget the most important word in journalism: Sensationalism!

[Reece]

OOPS!!

[WarlordATF]

Thats no moon, its a spacestation!

[Ducimus]

if it wasn't a contrail, I doubt the government would tell us for fear of starting a panic, or generating an unneeded (or unwanted) international incident.