THE US Navy has developed a new missile guidance technology that it hopes will cut the number of casualties caused when its missiles are wrongly targeted or go astray. The technology allows a commander to redirect a missile that appears to be heading for the wrong target, as a result of malfunction, or because the target moved or was wrongly identified in the first place.
This happens all too often. During the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s, a radar–homing missile intended for a radar site in Serbia strayed 50 kilometres into neighbouring Bulgaria. And in August 1998, US cruise…
