Various HCS bloggers are reporting that the HCS are working on a "Stage 0" for the forthcoming Gale III ICBM which will also be the basic for the SeaGale SLBM and CSM space missile. Stage 0 will be a compressed air booster to project the missile to several hundred metres from the launch pad (after a usual cold launch) before the rocket stage 1 begins.
This would enable the missile to avoid emitting infrared which could help the DDS detect it's launch. Although CSM is likely to be fitted with a cloaking device they do not work as well in atmospheres. Especially close to the ground with hard surfaces to reflect IR and heat, a compressed air stage would negate much of that. Cloaking devices also do not work as well because of the physical material the missile has to travel through. Although the missile can be cloaked the air it displaces as it moved cannot. It is thought the Clones are looking at advanced aerodynamics to help reduce this air displacement as much as possible.
If the DDS can detect a launched missile then they have the chance to destroy it before it enters space, then it would be virtually unstoppable. The race is now on between the HCS and DDS in cloaking the missile and detecting it.
