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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 - 06:58pm Jul 2, 2001 EST (#6429 of 6432)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Another question. Could it possibly be that any of the detectors or actuators in missile defense systems might vibrate, at least a little?

It is interesting, in terms of what the open literature leads a person to expect, how little that vibration would have to be -- even with "perfect" collinearity -- which I don't think you can have -- and "perfect" controls -- which would surely be useful in open literature applications -- there's not a whiff of an indication that DOD guys have a breakthrough on the key tracking problems of servo stability -- there's a picture of a con trail from a year ago - to argue for that.

rshowalter - 07:02pm Jul 2, 2001 EST (#6430 of 6432)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In the spirit of MD6426 gisterme 7/2/01 6:41pm , I'm tempted to suggest that people search "shuck."

rshowalter - 07:21pm Jul 2, 2001 EST (#6431 of 6432)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The arguments of
MD6418 rshowalter 7/2/01 5:26pm
have now been reinforced , because a responsible person, working to refute them, produced a ridiculous example, thinking it refuted my points, when the example actually supported my position.

What kind of hacks are feeding you information, gisterme ? -- I don't think you deserve to be embarrassed like this.

If they make this sort of mistake when it puts you at risk -- how many mistakes do you think these guys leave laying around unchecked?

These guys are sloppy -- they must be leaving "little" mistake time bombs, laying around, invalidating design calculations and program decisions.

I'd be angry at these guys, if I were you ! Could they be Democratic plants?

rshowalter - 07:27pm Jul 2, 2001 EST (#6432 of 6432)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

When I look at the incompetence of the missile defense proposals that have been floated, a question that occurs to me, forcefully, is

Are these people irresponsible and sloppy to the point of treason?

... or

Do they really know better? If they do, aren't they perpetrating a massive fraud, to the endangerment of the United States of America? And if so, how is that to be distinguished from treason?

The proposals are so far off the plausible, that it is hard for me to avoid such thoughts. Technically, it seems to me, these people ought to be ashamed of themselves. I'm not the only engineer I know who thinks that.

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