Russell from Layton wants to know: "in an air to air combat situation, what happens to the missiles that are fired and miss their targets?"
Good question...and when you ask a good question we give it to Bill Gephardt who searches for the good answer.
Bill filed this report:
Movies like top gun make it look pretty spectacular; War missiles shooting fighter planes out of the sky.
But it's not just special effects. It’s very similar to actual video of United States Air Force pilots training using air to air missiles to blow un-manned, remote-control drones out of the sky.
Okay. But, what happens when the missile misses the target?
Dean Ostovich is Lieutenant Colonel with the United States Air Force.
His mission is to test all the weapons used by the Air Force.
If the missile misses, what keeps it from crashing into, say, a structure on the ground?
"We'll put a flight termination system on it," Ostovich says.
There's a small explosive inside each missile that will split the missile into two pieces and keep the warhead, the explosive part, from arming.
Military folks on the ground monitor each missile fired very closely.
"If we see it going outside of these very prescribed parameters we'll have that charge fire and it breaks the weapon in half and it will fall harmlessly to the ground," Ostovich says.
Good to know...especially since a lot of the testing takes place in western Utah out over the Salt Flats.
Thanks for the good question.
Now, next week, just in time for Christmas, it's *baaaaaaack*!!!
The triumphant return of "Let Bill Buy It."
Each Friday bill will put consumer products to the test to see if they *really* work as well as advertised.
Do you have a product you would like tested?
Send us your suggestions at KUTV.com.
