China Fears U.S. Aircraft Carriers and Yes, We Can Shoot Down Rogue North Korean Missiles. Plus, Is Putin Stressed? (From The Joe Piscopo Show)

Morning drive time in New York City got a burst of speed when radio host Joe Piscopo brought up NASA’s test of the X-59 hypersonic jet.  And that’s not all.  The talk turned to aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, Putin’s mental state, the Russian Burevestnik missile test and American hit-to-kill missile defense technology. In just 10 minutes.  Full clip here and highlights below. 

President Donald J. Trump made quite the entrance on his visit to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, homeported in Japan.  He rode the elevator from the flight deck to hangar deck in company with two F-35C stealth fighter, all chocked and chained and two missiles.

 Joe Piscopo: “That was an entrance of entrances, was it not?”

Rebecca Grant: “My jaw dropped. There he stood with the two F-35s, and one of the missiles, the one with the pointy dark nose, that’s a very advanced missile.  That’s a message to Xi and I know they saw that in China,” I said of Trump’s deterrence-by-photo moment.  “China really fears U.S. aircraft carriers.”

Then, Joe asked about Putin, who is stressed, as Gen. Jack Keane observed on the show with Joe earlier. 

Putin comes out with this incredible missile that can go anywhere.  “Is he exaggerating?” Piscopo wondered.

 “You’re right Joe,” I agreed.  Putin is stressed because Trump is really getting inside his head with discussion of Tomahawks, and so are the Ukraine drone attacks on Russian energy.

Putin claims the Burevestnik missile is nuclear-powered and nuclear armed, but here’s my take.

“This missile is not what Putin makes it out to be. First, he has like, what, one of these missiles?  It’s a subsonic missile, he’s been working on it for quite a while, it’s not operationally ready, and it’s not hypersonic…This is a subsonic cruise missile that flies around for hours, i.e., it’s very easy to target.  What’s changed is we have hypersonic and ballistic missile tracking satellite systems going up.  So, a much better ability to see and track China’s missiles or Russia’s missiles from space. 

“So that matters out in the Pacific, you know, if China’s trying to target an aircraft carrier out in the Pacific, forget it. 

“Putin has a taste for war so he’s trying again to bring up these nuclear threats.  But as you know Joe, he can’t use nuclear weapons in Ukraine because the radiation blows back into Russia.”

What about rogue missiles from North Korea?  It’s like a bullet shooting a bullet. “God forbid, Kim Jong Un goes a little rogue on us. Do we have the ability to shoot those missiles down?” Piscopo asked

“Yes we do,” I replied  “For North Korea especially, they’ve been testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.  Not sure if their missile works completely yet.  But, we have a missile interceptor system based in Alaska at Fort Greeley.  We have about 40 interceptors up there.  It was designed specifically for the rogue North Korean threat of one or two missiles.  There are also 4 interceptors down in California at Vandenberg AFB. 

Those missiles use bullet on bullet.  It’s called hit to kill.  You’ve actually seen it used with Standard Missile 2, hitting Iran’s missiles that were headed to Israel.  It’s not an explosion.  The interceptor warhead actually hits the enemy warhead and blows it to smithereens up in the exo-atmosphere.  It is so cool.  The American technology we have is so great, we are so fortunate.”