Aircraft That Mimics Cruise Missile Highlight At Space and Missile Command Conference

It's certainly no Oshkosh, but it is the biggest show in the field of missile defense. The Von Braun Center in Huntsville (AL) was packed last week with contractors and military types for what the local media calls a "high-tech flea market" focused on missile defense.

An unlikely star at the Space and Missile Command Conference and Exhibition was a four-foot long aircraft designed to simulate the characteristics of a cruise missile. The idea is to help develop anti-missile systems.

Defense Secretary Donald told contractors at the conference that North Korea either has or will soon have a cruise missile capable of delivering a nuclear payload to the US. To critics who say we don't yet have the technology for an effective missile defense, Boeing's Stephen Aubin told the Decatur Daily newspaper, "Right now you have no defensive capability (against missiles). Better something than nothing."

"We're here to show people our capability and to interest the military," said Aerojet CEO Dick Bregard told the Daily. His company already makes motors for the Navy's Mark 72 missiles.

UAVs, of course, were big at the show. Aside from the small cruise missile simulator, soldiers were wowed by the battery-driven Raven, a UAV the length of your arm, designed to be launched by being tossed into the air.

FMI: www.acq.osd.mil/mda/mdalink/html/mdalink.html