I have been wondering if anyone else considered that while
the administration and media have listed the longer
range missile tests as failures, only the first stages
of the missiles really needed the testing- they already
had upper stages(short range missiles) that worked. The increased range of an ICBM comes from the heavy inititial ascent stage. Did these "failed" long range missiles really perform correctly with dummy upper stages and payloads for the sake of cost? Or even complete missiles that were terminated after the needed performace testing on the initial stage was completed?
I guess this could be considered a political question but I intended it to be an S&T aerospace question in spirit. If someone already asked this flame away. I can take it.
HK