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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?

possumdag - 07:00pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3071 of 3082)
Possumdag@excite.com

Mr Bush is becoming a menace concludes the Guardian article May2 above.

gisterme - 07:08pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3072 of 3082)

rshowalter wrote: "...I won't EVER lift 4000 lbs in the same lifts. It is just not on.

Star wars requires order of magnitude advances in a number of areas . . . .

If you expect to lift 4000 lbs with your body then you'er SOL. I stand in awe of 435! If I needed to lift 4000 pounds I suppose I'd just have to hire a crane. Probably have to do the same for 435...

But order of magnitude improvements in technologies...are rare? Look around Robert. How many "high tech" items can you see that are not at least an order of magnitude better than they were 200 years ago? Probably none, because high tech items did't exist then. How about items that are several orders of magnitude better than they were 50 years ago? A few? How about 20 years ago? If you're reading this message, you're looking in one of the right places. :-) The point is that throughout the last couple of centuries technologies have continually emerged, flourished and been left behind due to the appearance of newer technoligies. Consider the typewriter. Also, sometimes technological items are based on several underlying technologies. Take a TV set for example. Even though a modern TV set serves the same purpose as one from 50 years ago, the several orders of magnitude difference in performance is due to advancements or replacements of underlying technologies: vacuum tubes -> discrete semiconductor devices -> integrated circuits...etc.

So I can't buy your "orders of magnitude" arguement either Robert. How do you KNOW that orders of magnitude performance improvements are necessary for any part of the existing BMD system? What are the "number of areas" you're talking about? If you do know, then post the numbers so we can check 'em. :-)

possumdag - 07:09pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3073 of 3082)
Possumdag@excite.com

http://pearly-abraham.tripod.com/htmls/nmd-church.html FAITH BASED MND won't work

possumdag - 07:16pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3074 of 3082)
Possumdag@excite.com

http://www.onlinejournal.com/

possumdag - 07:20pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3075 of 3082)
Possumdag@excite.com

"""Australia was the most positive, saying that it shared U.S. concerns over potential missile threats from some governments.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia would allow the use of joint military bases such as the Pine Gap facility in central Australia for missile shield communications. """

read above as the non-thinking heads http://salon.com/news/wire/2001/05/02/nmd/index.html

possumdag - 07:25pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3076 of 3082)
Possumdag@excite.com

continuing GU thread MD links:

The Costs of Ballistic Missile Defense http://www.cdi.org/hotspots/issuebrief/ch5/#update

NMD - What does it mean and why we should care ? http://www.cdi.org/hotspots/issuebrief/

possumdag - 07:26pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3077 of 3082)
Possumdag@excite.com

Guide to weapons http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/

gisterme - 07:26pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3078 of 3082)

"...These are only three of many possible countermeasures. And none of these ideas is new; most are as old as ballistic missiles themselves..."

How about the re-entry phase? Probably none.

possumdag - 07:30pm May 2, 2001 EST (#3079 of 3082)
Possumdag@excite.com

http://www.itn.co.uk/news/20010502/world/08starwars.shtml with appendage links

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