May Third Flood

Concerning this weekend's reported "test" of a missile fired at the carrier George Washington: "The Carrier Killer: How China's DF-21D Threatens Every US Navy Ship in the Pacific" [Related to the Iranian missile fired at the George Washington] militarymachine.com/df-21d-c… Iranian and Chinese hypersonic missiles may have the same challenge in hitting a moving target, namely a ship, or even an aircraft carrier. If the launch plume is detected and the ships are warned, the ships can make radical turns and cover considerable distance during the 10 to 12 minutes of the missile's ballistic flight. At high hypersonic speeds, the warhead's sensors are blinded by a wall of plasma pushed out ahead. The warhead has to slow in the atmosphere sufficiently for the terminal guidance sensors to function. This limits finding and maneuvering toward the target to the final minute or so of the flight. See linked article, it's excellent. The missile sensors are for now fairly limited in their cone of detection. If the target ship has traveled 5+ miles in an unknown direction by the time the warhead is able to begin to seek the target, it may not find it in time, or it may not be able to turn radically enough to hit the moving target. That appears to be the limiting factor for China's DF-21XD "carrier killers," at least for now. And, by extension, Iran's similar missiles. But even a near miss on the George Washington, requiring an emergency crash turn at high speed, with the warhead exploding just a few kilometers away, or even closer, would be an event remembered by all the sailors aboard. And you can bet the incident is being microscopically studied by all the admirals in the US, Russian and Chinese navies. The terminal guidance problem may be a limiting factor for now, but as improvements are made, they can be incorporated into the 100s or more currently-existing land mobile Chinese DF-21D missiles, and their naval variants, as well as Iranian Fattah and Khorramshahr MRBMs. And if the single-missile "test" might be considered a failure in one way, in another it may be a success for the Iranians. Where one missile might miss, a salvo of missiles might not. And the sensors and turning ability of the warhead in its terminal dive phase will only improve, that is for certain. Please read the linked article carefully. @imetatronink @WeTheBrandon

So, who are the Houthis? Isn't Yemen some little desert kingdom? You might think so, but you'd be wrong. The Houthis are Shia, like the Iranians, and they are cooperating in weapons development.