A missile shield sounds like a shield used against missiles, right?


The topic is this: reply what you first think about when you hear 'missile shield', without looking up on wikipedia or something else what it actually is. The reason I'm curious is because when my sister and I discussed this, she thought a missile shield system will create a bubble around an area and repel missile that his the bubble... But I said her view was way too sci-fi and it can't possibly be that way. Instead, my theory was that it is an anti-missile system that fires your own missiles at approaching missiles, destroying them before they've hit their target. (I still haven't looked up what a missile shield actually is, I'll do it right now)


So, what do you think a missile shield is, and how it works? Or what did you think a missile shield was before you found out what it actually is?

My first thought was towards what you proposed actually. Some kind of device that eliminates missiles before they reached you.

A missile which actually helps your enemies by creating a shield around them on impact!

That sonic jammer on Air Force 1

Or eats it up, forcing it to explode within a small, sealed bubble of blue energy...

I'm unable to search myself to a conclusion of what that might be. Google isn't my friend today. Enlighten me?

I'd think it's something like projectiles/missiles that destroy incoming missiles, or some chaff or radio interference to disrupt its targeting.

Reminds me of Star Wars. (Ronald Reagan)

Either electronic countermeasures (guided missiles have electronic systems) or physical interception.

Depends. There's electronic countermeasures, which jam the incoming missile's guidance systems (and cause it to crash somewhere else and/or explode prematurely), and physical countermeasures, like anti-missile missiles. The biggest anti-missile system in use today, that I know of, is in Israel, which uses physical countermeasures due to incoming missiles being little more than a body, fins, and propellent.

Missiles that shield you against something, I'd imagine, e.g. anti-aircraft missiles.

Something that stops incoming missiles

That or if you want a bit more sci-fi it could also be lasers designed to track the missiles and blow up their fuel tanks. Or railguns.

A bunch of gatling guns strapped together.

Mine was a plastic garbage bin lid that stopped those nasty rocks from hitting me.

Something like that is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

I first think of any type of early detection system wether it involves firing another missile to take it down or sending jets to intercept it.

Well, what comes to my mind is the bubble thing, but realistically, I thought it would be a term used for the protective cover around a missile itself. "the missile's shield" rather than "shield against missiles" if you catch my drift.

I'm pretty sure a missile shield is any type of defense against missiles. My personal favorite is a Boeing 747 that is equipped with a giant laser, it is designed to chase down ballistic missiles and destroy them before the nuke goes off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1

As a boring man i think about a system that fires missiles that intercept hostile missiles, and last i heard such systems currently are extremely inefficient.

And that laser-based systems are being developed for a better version. I've even heard of fighter jets' point defense lasers that would shoot down approaching missiles. How they are going to power them is propably the biggest problem. But all that is just internet hearsay. Like the US Navy's rail guns.

I agree with you, Gorbad.
Maintaining such a forcefield is definitely beyond our capabilities, its sci-fi.

A missile shield will likely consist of earth and spacebound intercepting missiles.
Not out of the question but very much more expensive are certain high-energy beams such as microwave or laser.

I had looked it up before, so I knew that your 'suggestion' was the right one.

Here's a video about a system like that, called the Trophy system. Warning: the video is pretty much an advertisemant in disguise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2IqZhonKzU

Sounds like a composite of all the different systems a country can have in place. Anti-missile missiles are part of a missile shield, as are missile detection and tracking systems, anti-missile gun platforms, anti-missile lasers (these are real things). You have special, anti-missile missiles that have to hit the missile before it launches, special ones that hit the missile just after it launches, special ones to hit the missile while it's in outer space, and special ones to hit the missile while it's on the way back down.

When a country has a "shield" it usually means they have LOTS of things in place to protect against whatever they're trying to protect against, rather than just one thing.

Hell for a long time nuclear weapons were a shield in and of themselves to protect against nuclear weapons.

http://www.dannychoo.com/cgm/ecommerce/dannychoo/images/large/d574c052b46c3cb273af10b69327496f.jpg?1250851719

Maybe a laser that burns the missile apart before it reaches its target. Lasers are always good.

I was actually thinking of an actual big shield

I was thinking about a handheld shield that you can carry around and deflect incoming missiles. Sounds epic.