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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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kalter.rauch - 06:17am Oct 31, 2002 EST (# 5393 of 5396)
Earth vs <^> <^> <^>

rshow55 10/31/02 5:41am

Are you taking AW&ST to task then??? In the 30+ years I've been reading it, I've found it to be consistently reliable, though generally conservative to the point of stodginess.

Now, as for microwaves......you mean to tell me you find a 1000W oven comparable to a device putting out 10s of BILLIONS of watts. It may look comforting in print to confine the radiation behind little Faraday cages even though I KNOW there are those out there who are chuckling at your convenient omission of significant leakage through modern microwave ovens...not to mention wavelength or bandwidth. I've seen ants walk around INSIDE an activated oven...impervious because they are SMALLER than the wavelength of emission!!!

Secondly, your comparison of these emitters to bombs and bullets is a TOTAL straw man!!! The purpose is (presently) to destroy the delicate electronic controllers of modern weapon systems. You can't tell me you're unaware of the decades old threat presented by the crude, broad-band EMP effects on circuitry by nuclear bomb detonations in the upper atmosphere. These new devices are designed to match the resonant Q-factors of solid-state electronics. Vacuum tubes and heavy guage wiring MAY be somewhat resistant...BUT COMPLETELY irrelevant insofar as, say, high speed digital targeting radar systems for AA missiles...not to mention the missiles themselves.......

???

Look, I gave you a current industry source, and Winn Schwartau's book has been around for almost a decade. Get ahold of THAT volume...it's heavily padded with sources and footnotes, etc.

rshow55 - 06:35am Oct 31, 2002 EST (# 5394 of 5396)
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.

Kalter, you're a dishonest idiot, but I'll post this and get back to you.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense