Word: radars
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...firing 3,000 rounds a minute of uranium, 2 1/2 times as dense as steel, to create a wall of metal in front of the attacking missile. But the Phalanx system has its limitations: it operates only at close range and has difficulty tracking sea-skimming missiles amid the radar "clutter" caused by waves. Even under manual operation, the Stark's Phalanx system should have detected the incoming missiles, but the ship's only warning came just seconds before impact when a lookout spotted the first Exocet. To counter such problems, Israel is developing the Barak, an antimissile missile that...
...linchpin of the Navy's surface fleet is the high-priced ($1 billion apiece) Aegis cruiser, which Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger has called the "most advanced air-defense system in the world today." Named after the mythical shield of Zeus, Aegis cruisers like the Ticonderoga and Yorktown bristle with radars and weaponry capable of tracking and attacking 18 incoming missiles at a time. The Aegis radar is linked to a computerized fire-control system for the ship's antiaircraft guns, depth charges and rocket-launched torpedoes. Just seven of these advanced vessels are in service, but another...
Still, not even the Aegis radar is omniscient enough to deal with every potential challenge from the array of modern missiles deployed against it. Soviet Backfire bombers, for instance, could attack a U.S. fleet with cruise missiles launched from more than 350 miles away. One answer being considered by the Navy is a throwback to the barrage balloons that hovered over U.S. ships in World War II: helium-filled blimps containing enormous radars that could look down and track any intruder. The Navy has solicited bids for a $200 million prototype. Naval strategists also emphasize the critical need...
...computer buffs at ease with the graphic virtuosity of Max Headroom, the FAA demonstration might seem primitive. But to air-traffic professionals gathered in the agency's sixth-floor "war room," it represented a technological breakthrough. Prior to last week, FAA radar data showing the location of planes flying over the U.S. could be shown only piecemeal on computer screens at one or more of the aviation agency's 20 regional control centers. Now, all that information has been merged and displayed on a single cathode-ray screen, giving the nation's air-traffic controllers an unprecedented view of overhead...
...deserted field eight miles from the West German frontier, Vladimir donned flying goggles and wobbled aloft, rising no higher than 90 ft. to avoid being spotted by radar. Minutes later, two Czechoslovak air force Albatros jets closed in but turned away as he entered West German airspace. Vladimir kept flying until his fuel was gone, finally sputtering to earth in a potato field 19 miles from the border. "I've seen a lot of escapees," said a regional police official, "but this fellow had a real pioneer spirit...