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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.

rshow55 - 06:06am Aug 19, 2002 EST (# 3809 of 3826)

lchic 8/19/02 12:38am . . . what a lot of stuff, even just in the last seven days, when you search "missiles" in that forum.

It'll take me a little time to get my bearings, and respond there.

But I couldn't make this link work: http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?127@193.qnLsaJuERP0^1898566@.f2e31b0 - - could you give me a number, name, and date, so I can look at it?

Thanks.

lchic - 06:47am Aug 19, 2002 EST (# 3810 of 3826)

Wouldn't waste your time too much - that thread is too voluminous - and were it for real a link would have been given - or the poster would appear here for comment.

lchic - 06:51am Aug 19, 2002 EST (# 3811 of 3826)

http://abc.net.au/4corners/

mazza9 - 05:03pm Aug 19, 2002 EST (# 3812 of 3826)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

Aviation Week Aug 19, 2002 "Laser weapons on fighters have moved closer to reality with modification of an F-16 simulator to include high-energy laser weapon computer models. Pilots of the New Mexico Air National Guard's 150th Fighter Wing at Kirtland AFB, N.M. (where Air Force directed energy efforts are headquartered) are testing one design for air-to-air combat and another for attacking ground targets. The models take into account energy losses due to atmospheric transmission, the boundaries of lethal target engagements and laser limits and ranges, according to Rudy Martinez, a strategic planner with the Air Force Research Laboratory. A near-term goal is to use the simulator in war games to determine the utility of high-energy lasers against conventional weapons. The simulator is"scheduled for system evaluation this year."

When you build the capability into a simulator you are one step closer to an operational weapon. Lasers, EMP weapons to counter communications and computers, and ABL. "There Here!"

The same issue has an article "Missile Defense Needs Engineers, Scientists" Sec Def Rumsfeld is focusing additional resources in this area. A layered theater and national BMD will happen

LouMazza

mazza9 - 05:09pm Aug 19, 2002 EST (# 3813 of 3826)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

Luke's X Wing fighter, Obi Wan's light saber and Han's laser pistol on his hip! Zap your dead is not Sci fi anymore

THEL

LouMazza

lchic - 09:00pm Aug 19, 2002 EST (# 3814 of 3826)

Small time - links with Mars - BIG time!

"" Paul Davies says that if nanobes are indeed alive they may be a crucial link from non-life to life, helping us understand how life first started on earth; this 'exotic entity...stretches the boundaries of our definition of life.'

Is Dr Uwins on the trail of a revolutionary new life form, or are her nanobes literally too small to live?

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/h167387.htm

almarst2002 - 11:38pm Aug 19, 2002 EST (# 3815 of 3826)

A confidential U.N. memorandum found evidence to justify a "full-fledged criminal investigation" into the deaths in Afghanistan of hundreds of Taliban prisoners held by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33677-2002Aug18.html

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