classified time. the icbm was launched unarmed from the marshall islands in the pacific. a few minutes after that, the intercepter was launched from here at vandenberg. with the icbm traveling around 16,000 miles per hour, basically a five foot long very high tech metal projectile will separate from the intercepter missile and hopefully strike the incoming icbm. we were told in an exclusive interview, it s no easy task. listen here. it s very difficult. we re talking about intercepting in space at hundreds of miles of altitude with closing velocities of 1,000 miles per hour. it s hitting a bullet with a bullet. but it s the missile s defense agency s job to perfect the hitting of a bullet with a
military pilots. and weren t fighter pilots. and taking two aircrafts and trying to do what we call an intercept on them at night with closing velocities of over 1,000 miles an hour and no airborne intercept radar on board the airliner himself, so he s using his eyes, is probably a bit of a stretch. add to it two more things, all commercial aircraft have a t-cass. traffic collision avoid dance system. think of it like your car on steroids. anything that got within five to ten miles of another airplane, the crew of the airplane would be alerted and they would move. again, without a fighter jet to get up to 7, 8, 9 gs, you cannot maneuver very well to hit something. and his other point was that, you know, that might explain why the plane went off to the west, but if i was going to look for something to ram, i would stay