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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 - 08:24pm Jun 10, 2001 EST (#4720 of 4736)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

MD2995 rshowalter 5/2/01 1:05pm

gdecatrel - 08:54pm Jun 10, 2001 EST (#4721 of 4736)

there's no point to missile defense . . . if you were saddam, wouldn't you just put the bomb on a u.s. bound oil tanker, container ship, or a foreign commercial airline? I think the planners under-estimate the enemy's creativity.

I think the solution is to stop bullying other nations. The only reason we have enemies is our hypocritical, naive, and bombastic foreign policies.

by the way, here's another thought to ponder: the a-bomb is 1940's technology. it's inevitable that their construction will be commonplace.

11111zbl - 10:20pm Jun 10, 2001 EST (#4722 of 4736)

NMD is not a cost effective defense. Read the recent Foriegn Policy magazine:

Russian nuclear scientists make $50 a month

Many would work for whoever was willingly to pay them (Iraq, Bin Ladden?)

Bush has even moved to cut aid to Russia. This included aid to keep nuclear scientists busy dismantling the nuclear aresenal. Missile defense may or may not work, but it will be EXPENSIVE. Russian nuclear scientists looking for cash are much scarier to me. It is time for a return to rational thinking in our defence policy making

rshowalter - 10:36pm Jun 10, 2001 EST (#4723 of 4736)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I hope people read U.S. Missile Defense Plans Renew Atoll's Role by HOWARD W. FRENCH http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/world/11ISLA.html?pagewanted=all ... carefully, and think about what it means about the United States as a country of "human beings" - - - and also about what it means about the technical plausibility of the project, and the integrity of the people involved with it.

People have been working on MD for long, coddled lives -- with little regard to the needs of the people around them -- and have accomplished amazingly little, if you are looking for technical success.

But what has been accomplished is the creation of a degenerate socio-technical culture, with skills and experiences useful almost nowhere else, that will tell any lie, and perpetrate any injustice, and advocate any risk for the United States and the world, just to keep their place at their special trough.

Also, take a look at that radar antennae -- with geometries very similar indeed to many in existence in 1942 (technical logic does what it does -- and offers the possibilities that it does) -- and ask --

"How much question is there -- about what this kind of technology can do - - how far its accuracy and speed can be expended?

"Are order of magnitude advances likely here?"

How long have these folks been at it?

What have they hit ?

rshowalter - 10:40pm Jun 10, 2001 EST (#4724 of 4736)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Another technical question seems important to me.

We are looking at a testing installation.

Not an operation suited to analysis, or design, or very much flexibility.

How many tests have they run -- per year, or per person year?

Now, given what they've succeeded in doing in the past -- how much improvement are we expecting in the future?

From these people?

rshowalter - 11:05pm Jun 10, 2001 EST (#4725 of 4736)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The disparity between what's claimed, and what's actually been done is sometimes very great --- even when statements are made on television, it is assumed that people will forget.
MD3659 rshowalter 5/10/01 3:22pm

rshowalter - 11:24pm Jun 10, 2001 EST (#4726 of 4736)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Carl Levin is the Senator from Michigan , where they know something about building and testing complex systems. MD4666 rshowalter 6/9/01 6:12pm . . .
That resevoir of experienced judgement is going to be important for national and world security here.

There's also the question of purpose and proportion. .... MD4667 rshowalter 6/9/01 6:12pm

MD4670 rshowalter 6/9/01 6:55pm . . . MD4671 rshowalter 6/9/01 7:13pm
MD4673 rshowalter 6/9/01 7:33pm

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