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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

mazza9 - 05:49pm Aug 31, 2002 EST (# 4095 of 4109)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

Cooper:

The RFI from a garage door opener and the paperclip story were told to me in 1970 by a major who had been one of the first Atlas launch control teams. He was very knowledgeable and I had no reason to doubt his stories.

Weapons sytems are complex. One crossed wire can have devastating consequences. This is why I fear 3rd World regimes with super power weapons. While at Minot I met a rare individual. Lt Col Fugazi had the distinct "honor" of surviving a B-52 shootdown. In 1960 he was an Electronics Warfare Officer on a B-52. During training exercises over Pennsylvania he was defending the BUF from and air Defense Command F-87. Both aircraft were armed, (B-52 with 4 nucs and F-87 with Sidewinders). The F-87 was vectored to intercept and with his weapons "SAFE" he pulled the trigger. Oops, the fire control technician had reversed the wires during normal maintenance. Safe was armed and armed was safe. When he pulled the trigger the Sidewinder performed as expected and Lt Col Fugazi wa unable to defeat it. Two B-52 crewmen died and the nucs were spread all over the PA countryside. I searched the Internet and found no mention of this incident however there was mention of an F-100 downing a B-52 over New Mexico with the same proximate cause. Partial coverup? who knows?

mazza9 - 05:53pm Aug 31, 2002 EST (# 4096 of 4109)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

Cooper:

How do those lyrics go?

"We belong to a mutual obfuscation society my lchic and me"...

They're definitely a pair a noids!

wrcooper - 06:03pm Aug 31, 2002 EST (# 4097 of 4109)

mazza9 8/31/02 5:49pm

That's wild.

I fear 3rd World regimes with super power weapons.

No s_t, Sherlock.

I of course believe that accidents of the sort you described take place. It wouldn't surprise me if it was hushed up. No point in frightening the citizenry about nuclear armed aircraft getting shot down by friendly fire over the U.S. homeland.

It's a little hard to believe that a garage door opener could trigger a blast door or that a paperclip and rubber bands could be used to launch an ICBM, but, hey, I'm only a civilian.

I don't think anybody will be hiring you to do armed forces PR, Lou.

mazza9 - 06:12pm Aug 31, 2002 EST (# 4098 of 4109)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

Cooper

During the 50s and 60s up until the Palomares accident in Spain, SAC bombers ALWAYS were armed. Even during training missions!

Check out this site Nuclear Accidents

One of the Standardization pilots at Minot, when I was assigned, sat on the Palomares accident board. The recommendations had some far reaching effects but it sure was a mess. In the Cuba Gooding movie, "Men of Honor", he is involved in the search operation for the nuc lost in the Med.

wrcooper - 06:19pm Aug 31, 2002 EST (# 4099 of 4109)

mazza9 8/31/02 6:12pm

Fascinating stuff. I've saved it to read later. What I skimmed is pretty chilling. It's a testament to the skill of the weapons designers that the devices were able to sustain so much damage without detonating. Wow! I'm glad I didn't know any of this growing up. I already suffered from enough Cold War anxiety.

wrcooper - 06:26pm Aug 31, 2002 EST (# 4100 of 4109)

mazza9 8/31/02 5:53pm

I do think it's queer that they think I'm a Bush administration stooge posing as a NYT forumite, considering I oppose Bush's BMD plan. And I think it's odd that they think high-profile, high-powered people like Condoleeza Rice has the time and inclination to debate them in a liberal newspaper's online message board. I guess the national security business is so dull these days, they've got so much free time on their hands, that they can take time to debate a Madison grad student and an Aussie socialist. Are we talking delusions of grandeur?

Let's remember not to judge another person unless we've walked a hundred miles in his shoes.

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