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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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rshow55 - 07:19am Feb 6, 2002 EST (#11295 of 11298)

Powell Says U.S. Plans to Work Out Binding Arms Pact by TODD S. PURDUM http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/06/international/06DIPL.html is relevant to missile defense, and the discussions of this board, and on the side has a fine summary of

Arms Control, During and After the Cold War

"Some of the main nuclear arms control agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union and Russia. The date each agreement entered into force is in parenthesis.

" AUGUST 1963 -- Limited Test Ban Treaty Prohibits nuclear testing or any other nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water. (October 1963)

" JANUARY 1967 -- Outer Space Treaty Prohibits sending nuclear weapons into Earth orbit, placing nuclear weapons on celestial bodies or stationing them in outer space. (October 1967)

" JULY 1968 -- Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Prohibits the transfer of nuclear weapons to other countries and prohibits helping countries without nuclear weapons to make or acquire them. (March 1970)

" MAY 1972 -- Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) Interim agreement to freeze existing aggregate levels of American and Soviet strategic nuclear missile launchers and submarines. (October 1972)

" MAY 1972 -- Antiballistic Missile Treaty Bans space-based defensive missile systems and limits the United States and Soviet Union to one ground-based defensive missile site each. (October 1972)

" JULY 1974 -- Threshold Test Ban Treaty The Soviet Union and the United States agree to limit underground nuclear weapons tests. (December 1990)

" JUNE 1979 -- Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) The first formal strategic arms treaty sets an initial overall limit of 2,400 intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, submarine-launched missiles, heavy bombers and air-to-surface missiles. (Never entered into force; was superseded by Start I.)

" DECEMBER 1987 -- Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty Provides for the dismantling of all Soviet and American medium- and shorter-range land-based missiles and establishes a system of weapons inspection to guard against violations. (June 1988)

" JULY 1991 -- Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start I) Reduces the number of American and Soviet long-range nuclear warheads to 6,000 from 11,000 to 12,000. (December 1994)

" JANUARY 1993 -- Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start II) Reduces the superpowers' arsenals to 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each. (Final implementation awaits United States ratification of two related agreements.)

" OCTOBER 1999 -- The United States Senate rejects the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which President Clinton signed in September 1996. The treaty has been signed by 164 nations and ratified by 89.

" DECEMBER 2001 -- President Bush announces that the United States will withdraw from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

(Sources: Arms Control Association; State Department, Congressional Research Service; NATO)

lchic - 11:06am Feb 6, 2002 EST (#11296 of 11298)

34.Dwight D. Eisenhower: 1953-1961
35.John F. Kennedy : 1961-1963
36.Lyndon B. Johnson : 1963-1969
37.Richard M. Nixon : 1969-1974
38.Gerald Ford : 1974-1977
39.Jimmy Carter : 1977-1981
40.Ronald Reagan : 1981-1989
41.George Bush : 1989-1993
42.Bill Clinton : 1993-2001
43.George W. Bush : 2001-
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/

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