Interceptor shield

Interceptor Shield is not a gaming site and is dedicated to real life defense news and issues related to missile threat and missile news. But a week ago I received an email from a friend in the air force suggesting we at IS news might want to take a look at an upcoming Missile simulator game called Defcon produced by Introversion and maybe even do a review of the simulator game.

So this weekend I picked up a copy of Defcon, below is my impressions of the simulator.

The game plays out through the different stages of Defcon and starts at Defcon5 and then over time as Global situation deteriorates and starts moving down to Defcon 1 fighting starts to break out. No missiles may be launched until Defcon1 is reached. At Defcon3 your naval fleets can start attacking enemy fleets. Also planes may attack land targets, but no nuke bombers may be used until Defcon1.

The game starts with players placing their defense sites including missile sites airports and radar sites. Once those are placed the player may then place his carriers fleets and battles ships along with nuke subs.

Pro’s

The simulator has a very easy and simple interface to learn and is easy to use. Some people may find the interface a little to simple. But it does it job. After playing several test runs of Defcon I was quite pleased with the interaction of Defcon and with each new game I played I was finding more strategies to use. The AI for the game is very good but Defcon really shined with its online play against human players.

Cons of game

One of the main things that I did not like was that ICBM sites switch between being ICBM sites and air defense sites, they should be separate emplacements that the player may place separately, not at a single site.

The other thing I wish they had added where the ability to deploy different systems for different targets. Right now there is one Generic ICBM. There are no Crusie missiles or being able to select a yield on each bomb or missile. Also Warheads do not deploy decoys and a missile is limited to one warhead on each missile. So this takes away from Realism.

Next up Radar Coverage is the same for all Radar sites. And no long range radar like in real life. And as far as I have tested out there is no sea based missile defense systems for your fleets so your chances of hitting an incoming missiles are limited to your land based Air defense systems. I would like to see the missile defense part of this game updated, since it seems like it was only tossed in at the end. Over this spring and summer the sea based missile defense system in real life has come to maturity with numerous successful intercepts using the sea based Standard Missile 3 or SM-3 and we had a successful intercept of a target missile using the ground based interceptor.

Next up selecting targets for you ICBM sites take up a lot of time since you have to select the silo’s then fire a missile at each target. It would be nice to be able to make target lists for your silos early in the game when things are not so frantic. That you could then use by selecting from a list.

All and all Defcon is one of the best modern missile simulator games I have seen in a while and takes a step out side the box of regular games like racing and flying games on the market. And so as head news editor of IS I am giving Defcon a 96% and is well worth the money.

Interceptor Shield report
Nathan J Hunt
September 7, 2006

The Russian news agency RIA Novosti has reported that a test of a Bulava Ballistic missile from a submarine has failed. The test missile was fired from a submarine in the White Sea, but it is reported that the missile failed during the second stage of the missiles flight and fell back into the sea. A special investigation into the missiles failure is planned once the submarine returns to port. Russia has conducted two other flight tests of the Bulava Ballistic missile first in September 27, 2005 and second on December 21, 2005.

Interceptor Shield Report
Nathan J Hunt
September 5, 2006

The Chinese’s government on Monday conducted a test of their Dongeng-31 missile, prior to the test launch the Russian defense ministry was alerted of the test before hand. The test launch of the ICBM took place at the Wuzhai launch site, the missile landed in the Taklimankan desert at about midnight. It was stated that the missile flew approximately 2.5 thousand kilometers.

The missile that was tested is planned to go into deployment this year and a longer-range version of the Dongeng-31 will be tested and deployed next year in 2007.

Interceptor Shield Report
Nathan J Hunt
September 1, 2006

The missile defense Agency announced a successful test of the ground based interceptor program, today September 1, 2006 10:39 A.M PDT and 1:19 PM EDT a ground based interceptor was launched from the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The missile was targeted at an incoming target dummy missile that had been fired from the Kodiak Launch Complex, Kodiak, Alaska.
A lock-on to the target warhead was achieved by the interceptor and was destroyed by the interceptors kill vehicle. This test of the ground-based interceptor had been delayed due to bad weather but the weather cleared today allowing the test to go through.

A full press release from the missile defense agency is available at this link

On August the 28 the missile defense advocacy alliance held a reception of Champions in Anchorage, Alaska. This event was attended by.
Former Governor, Walter J. Hickel
Former Governor, Bill Sheffield
Former Governor Terry Knowles
Lt. General Douglas Fraser (Speaker), Commander of Alaskan Command
Lt. General Henry “Trey” Obering (Speaker), Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
Lt. General Larry Dodgen, Commander, U.S. Army Space and Missile Command
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Pentagon
Major General Craig E. Campbell, Adjutant General, Alaska National Guard
Major General Charles H. Jacoby, Commander US Army Alaska
Brig. General Tom Katkus, Assistant Adjutant General for Space and Missile Defense
Stan Borucki, Honorary Consul, Consulate of the Republic of Poland
Yoshio Uchiyama, Consul, Head of Office, Consular Office of Japan
Mark Hamilton, (Speaker), President, University of Alaska System

These events are important because it provides the public with the ability to talk to the heads of the program and get a better understanding of why we are developing these systems and helps build good relationship between the public and the defense department The missile defense advocacy alliance released the following news release about the reception.

Under The Northern Lights
The State of Alaska with its three hundred and sixty-degree view from the top of the world is our nation’s vanguard of protection and defense. Whether it is air travel or space travel, the shortest way to reach the United States is over the Northern most state of the United States. Since the advent of military aircraft in World War I, our military have recognized the strategic value and have deployed military bases in Alaska that have served to defend the skies in protecting our homeland. Today the military bases in Alaska headed by Lt Gen Douglas M. Fraser are fully integrated into our Northern Command defending our country.

As technology has evolved, geography remains constant. Alaska provides strategic protection against sophisticated air and space threats that can pose the quickest strike capability to our nation. This important fact was brought to national and world attention as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spent time at some of the key military bases in Alaska this past weekend. The Secretary further spent time with his Russian counterpart Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in an outward celebration of the Lend Lease deal where the United States supplied Russia with aircraft in World War II prior to the United States involvement. During their time together in Fairbanks there was no doubt that Alaska’s strategic position and defensive elements came into discussion. The Russians want more “transparency” in Missile Defense, and Secretary Rumsfeld is committed to the deployment and continued evolution of Missile Defense motivated by the proliferation of missile technology by North Korea “who will sell to anybody.”

A full version of the press release may be found at the MDAA site at this link.