Peeling the Onion An Heuristic Overview of Hit-to-Kill Missile Defense in the 21st Century

摘要

Researchers engaged in the development of infrared detector technologies may well benefit from a broader understandingof their products from the perspective of the end-user. An appreciation of how this technology is to be used by systemdesigners, many of whom possess only a rudimentary understanding of quantum physics, is highly germane. Answersto questions like: “What device technology will be employed,” “How will the device be used?” and “What are theimpacts on signal-to-noise?” are of critical importance.In this paper, some of the fundamentals of hit-to-kill missile defense technology are examined in a largely nonmathematicalcontext. From its “Star Wars” inception during the Reagan administration, to today’s Missile DefenseAgency, the core requirement of missile defense has not changed – find the threat and destroy it before it reaches itsdestination. This fundamental requirement, while conceptually straightforward, is extraordinarily difficult to satisfy,and is almost exclusively dependent on our ability to detect and designate a relatively small, very fast-moving, roomtemperatureobject, at great distances, and usually in a severe environment of shock and vibration further clouded byerror and uncertainty.