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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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bluestar23 - 01:38pm Oct 17, 2003 EST (# 15202 of 15221)

Abstracts from a Report on Missile Defense in Asia:

"According to the report, of all the countries in Asia, Japan has perhaps the most focused attention to missile defense. While Japan has for years had a low-level program of cooperative research with the United States on sea-based missile defenses, recent tensions with North Korea, heightened by that country's testing of Nodong missiles capable or reaching most, if not all of Japan, have stimulated new attention to the prospect of building such defenses.

The report states that there is a "peculiarly Japanese" logic to deploying missile defenses, as they are inherently defensive in character and thus present fewer problems for Japan's "Peace Constitution". And, given the end of the Cold War and with the United States supposedly less inclined to rely on nuclear deterrence for its own security, many Japanese argue that it is imprudent for Japan to continue to regard the US nuclear guarantee as an adequate assurance of Japan's security against nuclear threats. As the nuclear option is precluded for Japan by both its constitution and national sentiment, missile defense is seen as an obvious option.

While US-Japanese missile-defense cooperation dates back to the administrations of president Ronald Reagan and prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone in the 1980s, Japan agreed to participate in technical cooperation with the United States after North Korea's test of its Taepodong missile in August 1998.

Japan already has Aegis-equipped destroyers, on which an initial sea-based missile defense system would be based. In this cooperation, Japan's contribution has grown from about US$9 million in the first year to more than $50 million per year. The work has focused on a lightweight nose cone, an advanced infra-red seeker, a kinetic-energy warhead and second-stage rocket booster.

Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba has advocated moving ahead with development and deployment as soon as possible. The concepts would involve working with the United States on completing the development of a sea-based interceptor system using a second-generation Standard Missile and an upgraded SPY-1 radar.

India, understandably, is sympathetic to the idea of missile defenses, if only because it focuses on the problem of missile proliferation. Specifically, India has been unable to deal with the proliferation of Chinese missiles and technology to Pakistan. Thus, Indians are hopeful that missile-defense technology will provide a counter. Furthermore, it may also complicate military planning in Pakistan.

For Taiwan, missile defense is inseparably linked to its relationship with mainland China. China currently has about 400 missiles within range of Taiwan, with more being added each year, giving it the ability to threaten the island in a crisis. Thus it is difficult to see the United States ruling out providing Taiwan with access to missile defenses.

bluestar23 - 01:40pm Oct 17, 2003 EST (# 15203 of 15221)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EG24Ad02.html

The link....

lchic - 02:30pm Oct 17, 2003 EST (# 15204 of 15221)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

Krugman http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/17/opinion/17KRUG.html

Rich Poor rich poor poor poor ......

Looting - in a wartorn country is prohibited

There everybody has an understanding of 'value'

rshow55 - 05:33pm Oct 17, 2003 EST (# 15205 of 15221)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

The Last Emperor By PETER MAASS http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/magazine/19KOREA.html is fascinating.

The Fedex packet I spoke of in http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.dUTFbJ7aPj9.0@.f28e622/16894 will arrive Monday, not Saturday. I apologize if there is any inconvenience.

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