mistaken Iron Dome activation

[Gneckes]

http://www.thisisinsider.com/israel-blo ... ake-2018-3

Excuse my confusion, but wouldn't the interceptors need some sort of targeting data to be launched? What happened to "interceptors are only fired if the target is projected to impact a protected area"?
Surely there isn't a button that just goes "launch missiles at thin air"?

[SeaQueen]

Associated with every sensor is a probability of false alarm. It's a function of signal processing and the technical characteristics of a radar. Typically they try to keep it quite low, although the more signals you reject the more likely you are to miss a good one. Like most things in engineering it's about finding the sweet spot for the given application. Additionally, I'm sure there are manual controls on it as well. It's unclear from what I've seen whether it was acting autonomously (in which case it was acting on a false alarm) or whether it was being fired manually by someone acting on imperfect information.

[Cik]

radar operators missed a little too much sleep and decided that today was the day they would shoot down a bird

it's unclear if they got it, but maybe tomorrow will be the day?

[Gneckes]

The article made it sound like someone heard a rocket launch and decided to fire the interceptors, but yeah, false Radar signal makes a lot more sense.

[Gunner98]

When we first deployed counter mortar radars to Kabul they were getting all sorts of weird reflections off the mountain (the city is in a bowl). When we dialed it back to prevent that we were tracking every bird for miles around - it took a while to figure it out. We didn't shoot any though [:D]

B

[thewood1]

Funny, my uncle was a counter mortar radar specialist in the army in 1950. They sent him to Korea near the Pusan perimeter. They found the terrain so hilly that they were getting so many false positives as to be useless. He ended up being thrown into the line as a rifleman because they could never get it working right. He always felt he was the most expensive rifle carrier in Korea.

[Gunner98]

I can sympathise - we had our guys doing gate guard for about a month before we got them working right. Our UAV guys were having more problems, they were brand new and we were launching them from above their normal operating altitude, that caused some extra stress and strain. We only had 6 airframes in the initial buy, 4 of them had a major manufacturer malfunction and were either crashed or grounded - our guys managed to land one on the 'only tree in Kabul!' and we had to keep the last airframe ready for a real need - those guys were doing gate guard for about six weeks...

[:'(]

[thewood1]

Just think of the tech you have now and think of my poor uncle that had the most limited computing power you could imagine.

[stilesw]

OT and probably does not belong in this thread but hey, some of the above reminded me.

Sea story (been told it should begin with "This is no s***"):

Had a friend in the USN during Vietnam - a Tin Can guy. Came back to San Diego after a long deployment. Believe he was a new Chief at the time. After his ship docked the Yard Commander needed some guys to guard a compound area. Did he take new troops - noooo, picked up the returning crew and put them on the duty instead of letting them go on leave - put my friend in charge. Not well received at all. He transferred to the USAF at the end of his USN enlistment and retired as a CMSgt (E-9).

[Gunner98]

Just think of the tech

Very true! When it worked it was magic, when it didn't it was tricky to figure out why because it was so new. I think that most of the tech from that era used vacuum tubes made in Czechoslovakia - not good when the wall went up.

[Cik]

ah, think of all the jobs created my friend.

having to replace your entire industrial base will do it- see 1946 for proof.

[ExNusquam]

having to replace your entire industrial base will do it- see 1946 for proof.

Careful, that's the broken window fallacy.

[Rory Noonan]

ORIGINAL: stilesw

OT and probably does not belong in this thread but hey, some of the above reminded me.

Sea story (been told it should begin with "This is no s***"):

Had a friend in the USN during Vietnam - a Tin Can guy. Came back to San Diego after a long deployment. Believe he was a new Chief at the time. After his ship docked the Yard Commander needed some guys to guard a compound area. Did he take new troops - noooo, picked up the returning crew and put them on the duty instead of letting them go on leave - put my friend in charge. Not well received at all. He transferred to the USAF at the end of his USN enlistment and retired as a CMSgt (E-9).

This is standard practice everywhere. Welcome back from your 6 month deployment. Surprise! 1/3 of you get to stay on board your ship tied up at the dock every night for no real reason.