PMRF expansion comment period

SUBHEAD: Military continues expansion of weapons development at PMRF. Comments due 3/22.

By Juan Wilson on 9 March 2010 in Island Breath -  
(http://oeqc.doh.hawaii.gov/Shared Documents/Environmental_Notice/current_issue.pdf)

   
Image above: Lego version of the Starwars Deathstar available from Amazon for $537.99. From (http://www.galaxybricks.com/death-star-lego.php) Click on image to expand. 

The following article is the rearrangement of material from the link above, as well as a portion of a previous article on Island Breath. We have less than two weeks to respond to this request by the PMRF.  

COASTAL ZONE NOTICE:  
Federal Consistency Reviews

The Hawaii Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program has received the following federal actions to review for consistency with the CZM objectives and policies (HRS 205A). This public notice is being provided in accordance with Section 306(d)(14) of the National Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended.

 PROPOSED ACTION:
Pacific Missile Range Facility Missile Intercept Test Support, Kauai

Federal Action: Federal Agency Activity Federal Agency: U.S. Department of the Navy Contact: David Hasley, (256) 955-4170 Location: Kekaha, Kauai Update the capabilities of the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) to support future tests of missile intercept technologies. The proposal includes the construction and modification of PMRF facilities to test new land-based interceptor systems, such as the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense program, and the enhancement of current intercept test capabilities at PMRF. Additional land-launched systems would be placed at PMRF, including the installation of missile launchers, radars, and support facilities. The Aegis Ashore Missile Defense program would construct an interceptor launch area that would include a launch pad, a launch equipment building, and a land-based Aegis launch system. Three lighting and instrumentation towers would be erected at the interceptor launch area for mounting video and sensor equipment to monitor missile launches. The proposed program would also establish an Aegis Ashore Test Center (ATTC) on PMRF, which includes launch fire control, radar, 2 towers, mission analysis secure rooms, radar maintenance area, and fire water tanks and pumps.  

COMMENTS:  
our comment deadline is March 22, 2010.

Federally mandated deadlines require that comments be received by the 22 March 2010. Send comments to Office of Planning, Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Planning Office Hawaii DBEDT P.O. Box 2359, Honolulu, HI 96804 email: jnakagaw@dbedt.hawaii.gov fax: (808) 587-2899

INFORMATION:
For general information about CZM federal consistency, please call John Nakagawa at 587-2878 or the CZM staff person listed below. For neighbor islands call toll-free: Kauai: 274-3141 x72878, Lanai & Molokai: 468-4644 x72878, Maui: 984-2400 x72878, or Hawaii: 974-4000 x72878. The PMRF has a role in what has been called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI or Starwars program). Parts of SDI was the development of directed energy divices (rayguns), that could use laser technology destroy satellites or incoming missiles with a burst concentrated energy.Back in 2004 we reported:

LASER WEAPONS AND THE STAR WARS PROGRAM

If a nuclear attack were launched on America, it could involve hundreds of missiles carrying thousands of warheads, each traveling at up to 4 miles a second towards targets they would reach within 30 minutes of launch. To protect themselves, the US have therefore developed their Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or 'Star Wars' program. A major part of this program is to develop lasers that will shoot down enemy missiles within five minutes of launch.

If it was left any later than this, then defense becomes much more difficult because the missile releases up to ten separate warheads and many decoys, greatly increasing the number of targets that have to be hit. Lasers destroy their targets by directing onto them an intense beam of energy which travels at the speed of light - 186,000 miles a second.

The simplest method of destruction is to focus a beam of infrared radiation on a missile so that it burns a hole in the rocket casing, causing fuel to escape so stopping the missile from reaching orbit. Another possibility is directing the beam to disrupt the rocket's electronic guidance system.

The US are developing a chemical laser in which hydrogen and fluorine react together to form hydrogen fluoride, which is a corrosive gas or liquid which can be made to release a powerful burst of infrared radiation. The laser is focused and aimed by prisms and mirrors. A chemical laser of sufficient power, at least 25 megawatts, could destroy a missile almost 2,000 miles away.

The lasers would attack their targets from battle stations in space, a few hundred miles above the Earth. However, a total of about 100 stations would really be needed to give the US the possibility of complete protection, and getting that many in space would dwarf any previous space project. Just the hydrogen fluoride needed to fuel the lasers would weigh about 2000 tons! Think of the costs for that kind of payload. How would such a project be funded?

A possible alternative to that might be to base the lasers on land. The difficulty then though is that the atmosphere would disperse the laser beam, making it impossible to focus on the missile's skin. Putting the lasers on top of high mountains would reduce distortion, obviously because their would be less atmosphere to penetrate. Advanced optical techniques designed to counteract the dispersive effect of the atmosphere may also help.

Even so, no more than a tenth of the power of the laser could be expected to reach the target, which means that the lasers fired from Earth would need to be very powerful. They would probably need to have the power of around 400 megawatts each. This is the equivalent electricity consumption of a medium-sized city, and 1000 times more powerful than any laser known to exist today.

Mirrors would have to keep the lasers locked onto the missile for several seconds before it would be destroyed. Even if this were achieved, the enemy could probably still defeat the laser by putting a heat shield around the missile or by making it spin so that the beam could not be focused on the same spot long enough to burn a hole. The Star Wars program has also been developing lasers which produce X-rays rather than a beam of light.

These X-rays are produced in a single pulse rather than a continuous beam (a pulse laser). The source of the X-rays is a small nuclear explosion. When the pulse of X-rays hits the enemy missile they are absorbed by it's skin, vaporizing it and blowing the missile apart. Because X-rays are rapidly absorbed by the atmosphere they would also have to be fired from space when both the laser, and the missile it was attacking, had risen above the atmosphere.

This is at least 50 miles above the Earth. The idea is not to station the lasers permanently in space, but to launch them only when satellite observations show that an enemy attack is already under way. The X-ray lasers would be launched from submarines, and would then be quickly boosted into orbit where they would be aimed and fired accordingly and automatically.

Well, at least your children can have jobs building and operating this equipment during WW3.


See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Navy Plans for Mordor 3/10/10
Ea O Ka Aina: Guam as modern day Bikini Atoll 12/25/09
Ea O Ka Aina: Guam Land Grab 11/30/09
Ea O Ka Aina: Guam - Another Strategic Island 11/9/09
Ea O Ka Aina: Diego Garcia - Another stolen island 11/6/09
Ea O Ka Aina: DARPA & Super-Cavitation on Kauai 3/24/09
Island Breath: RIMPAC 2008 - Navy fired up in Hawaii 7/2/08
 Island Breath: Navy Plans for the Pacific 9/3/07
Island Breath: RIMPAC 2006 - Impact on oceani 5/23/06
Island Breath: RIMPAC 2004 - Whale strandings on Kauai 9/2/04
Island Breath: Navy Plans for the Pacific 9/3/07
Island Breath: PRMF Land Grab Part Five 6/10/04
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