There are more pro than con arguments concerning this decision, because few people would have liked to die because of the collision.
The spy satellite, known as US 193, was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor.
The operation answered a crucial question. Experts had wondered if the United States had not only area defense systems, but also ship-based theater missile defense ones. Now we know: the satellite was downed with a single missile fired from a navy cruiser in the northern Pacific Ocean. It means that the United States has anti-satellite capability.
It was a good chance for the Americans to test the new missile without searching for a pretext and arousing unnecessary suspicion. SM3, a product of the Star Wars (SDI) program of the 1980s, did its job very well.
Even though it was partly chance, the rest was hard work to create a navy with an air and missile defense capability stationed in all potentially dangerous parts of the world.
President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, initiated to protect the West from the Soviet viper, produced quite a few highly effective air defense systems and ideas. For example, the Americans tried using the Aegis as part of the theater missile defense system.
The first Aegis cruiser, USS Ticonderoga, was used in fighting in Lebanon in 1983, where it provided artillery support and air defense to U.S. task groups against aviation and missile strikes.
The Aegis combat system has a Spy-1A radar with two stationary phased array antennas and two Standard SM-2-ER solid-fuel two-stage missiles. It is highly effective against aircraft interacting with high- and low-flying anti-ship missiles in conditions of electronic warfare.
These characteristics were an ideal basis for creating a kill vehicle against ballistic missiles and low-orbit satellites.
In the mid-1980s, Americans started researching the Lightweight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile (LEAP), which a group of companies led by Boeing later created under a contract with the navy.
The first successful test of the missile, called Standard Missile SM3, was held on September 24, 1999, when the missile followed the designated trajectory. In 2001, the navy decided to use it for intercepting a ballistic target. On November 21, 2002, the interceptor missile launched from the USS Lake Erie guided-missile cruiser hit an Aries target missile flying at an altitude of 152 km (94 miles) 170 km (106 miles) away from the ship.
Today the U.S. Navy has three ships armed with the Standard/Aegis combat system, one of which, the USS Lake Erie, launched the missile that downed the dying spy satellite.
Americans spent nearly three weeks adjusting the SM3 missile for the task, because the characteristics of a ballistic target differ from the parameters of a satellite, such as speed and temperature. They had to reprogram the guidance system of the kinetic warhead. Their success has confirmed the modernization potential of the system.
Unfortunately, the Russian armed forces are not doing anything similar to strengthen their air defense element. President Vladimir Putin formulated the task in 2001, at the beginning of his first term. So far, there has been no more than talk about consolidating all aerospace defense elements under one command, for example, the Air Force.
I have no questions about the idea, but what about its implementation?
The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler), which was put on combat duty near Moscow last year, has been said to have space capabilities. However, we will be able to do what SM3 has done only when we implement the project, launched in early 2007, to create a fifth-generation aerospace/missile defense system.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
