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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 12:30pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4857 of 4880)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

A work of high art:

Dr. Pangloss, I Presume? by GAIL COLLINS http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/12/opinion/12COLL.html

. . .

"Mr. O'Neill has an ear for the Bushian dialectic ....

"His boss is off on his first trip to Europe, where this administration is very popular, if you forget about questions of defense, foreign policy, capital punishment and the environment. The president is going to have to sell our allies on his plan for a missile shield, which is an exciting new vision for arms control except for the fact that we don't know how to build it.

We are hoping that Europe works out well for Mr. Bush even though he is said to be planning to use the same diplomatic strategy there that he employed in California, possibly the least successful good-will trip since Dad dined in Japan. The president left Washington on a conciliatory note, acknowledging that the greenhouse effect is not a figment of deranged environmentalists' imagination and promising more money for research. The administration must have given up hope of finding a scientific panel that felt global warming was no big deal if you set aside the fact that the planet is getting hotter. Still, who knows what might turn up? Extensive, painstaking studies should always precede action, missile shields of course excepted.

. . .

rshowalter - 12:32pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4858 of 4880)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Editorial:

Mr. Bush's European Debut http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/12/opinion/12TUE1.html

gisterme - 12:44pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4859 of 4880)

almarst wrote: "...As for invetiveness, resoursfulness and "thinking for themselves", it is my oppinion, on average, the Russians are at least on pair with the West. Just to be polite;)..."

You're right almarst. The original comment was meant to apply in only the very narrowest of senses. I failed miserably at specifying that. Thanks for being polite. :-)

dirac_10 - 12:45pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4860 of 4880)

rshowalter - 12:23pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4854 of 4856)

If any one system has weaknesses, and you put the systems together -- the odds of a mess are VERY high.

Nah, weaknesses in one are ignored in the other. When several ICBMs blast off from N. Korea, headed for the US we get several shots at it. Several chances to hit it.

First, we shoot the booster with airbourne/satellite lasers as soon as it clears the clouds. (Massive ground based lasers bouncing and being refocused by satellites eventually.) Extremely easy to hit. Extremely. Very unlikely the big booster can be armor plated enough to stand the heat. Shortly thereafter missles will hit any remaining boosters. The warheads will fall on the agressor.

Any warheads that make it past the boost phase will be hit by missles and lasers in mid flight. Extremely easy to hit it with lasers, but not a sure thing for now that it will stop the warhead, but the chaff will be blown away. The remaining warhead, that can be isolated, regardless of whether the laser blows away the chaff, is destroyed by the well worn path of missles.

Finally, if any survive all the aforementioned, the missle is destroyed as it enters the beginnings of the atmosphere. Both by lasers and missles. Being short range and ground based, they are cheap and plentiful. Too close for comfort, but Saddam won't know the exact range. He will have to guess.

rshowalter - 12:56pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4861 of 4880)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Note on dirac:
MD4627 rshowalter 6/8/01 5:16pm

dirac_10 - 01:05pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4862 of 4880)

Yes, George Johnson is another name in use. But don't forget the unmentioned "other" one.

rshowalter - 01:17pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4863 of 4880)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

China offers wonderful advice - good advice for all, including Russia, the US, Japan, China herself, and other countries. Truth is important, and makes progress possible.

MD2416 rshowalter 4/20/01 6:58am

alty53 - 01:21pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4864 of 4880)

To Dirac 10......like a broken record....."we aim, we hit," an assertion made over and over again without supporting evidence......just say the magic words, "laser cannons,'" "speed of light,".......and presto-chango, the technology exists to shoot down a missile......as for the location problem, the surprise is that you don't realize the earth rotates.....you can't solve the problem I put before you because you don't appreciate the problem let alone understand the problem...... none-the-less, I stand by my assessment that you are a child, you live in a comic book ditto-head reality........

rshowalter - 01:27pm Jun 12, 2001 EST (#4865 of 4880)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

You'd be surprised how much trouble a "child" can put a person to.

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