• PMRF launch PMRF launch Some 85 miles above the earth Thursday a dummy warhead launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility was destroyed by another missile launched from the USS Lake Erie. The Kaua’i missile played the role of
• PMRF launch
PMRF launch
Some 85 miles above the earth Thursday a dummy warhead launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility was destroyed by another missile launched from the USS Lake Erie.
The Kaua’i missile played the role of the bad guy in the exercise, and the live warhead from the Aegis-weapon- system-equipped Lake Erie, which was hundreds of miles west of Kaua’i, played the good guy in destroying the incoming missile.
The missile launches are the latest step in the creation of a national ballistic missile defense system.
Targeting and destroying the missile launched from Kaua’i is being compared to having a bullet hit a bullet.
This launch, which took place just after 8 a.m. yesterday morning Hawai’i time, was carefully watched around the globe, both by the Pentagon and the Navy, as well as rogue nations with future plans of striking the United States with intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with warheads that could contain nuclear weapons. Aegis-equipped ships are on patrol in the waters of the Middle East, and the information from the test is also aimed at improving the technical precision of the Aegis system.
The success of this launch shows the United States is successfully fine-tuning the anti-missile systems. Earlier launches that failed to make a hit set back both the technical and public relations aspects of President Bush’s plans for a national missile-defense system. This success moves his plans along another step.
With the recent closure of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet Weapons Test Facility near Puerto Rico, PMRF is now the focus of the Navy’s testing of Aegis missile systems. The test launch yesterday also highlighted this change, and the closure in the Puerto Rico area has greatly increased the importance of the Westside base’s testing range to the Navy and the U.S. military in general.
What this means for Kaua’i is a probable increase in defense dollars coming to Kaua’i, both for one-off launches like yesterday, and for long-term work being done by defense contractors at the base.
This growth is good for the economy, but also highlights the now- chronic problem of rental and affordable-ownership housing on the Westside and across the island. However, it is going to be hard to increase the population of workers at PMRF if workers need to be brought in from off-island to live on Kaua’i and there is no housing for them. The jobs at PMRF can range from service-industry-type work up to positions requiring doctorate degrees, and a wide range of housing may be needed.
As education looms as the key issue of the upcoming session of the state Legislature, housing for Kaua’i’s people of ordinary means is the main issue on the county level here. Action needs to be taken on this issue, which is beginning to pop up in relation to more and more issues including drug and family abuse, the brain drain of our best and brightest, and in general the morale of our young people.
