Re: Granted, the current proposal is not a boost phase intercept.
Yes, and there are a number of reasons, both technical and political, for not attempting a boost phase intercept. The main one being that if we start building an attack platform (sure it's for defense only, we believe you!) hovering over Russia in a geosynchronous orbit, they'll turn the United States into a radioactive slag heap before we can get half way through finishing it.
there are ways to protect systems from an EMP burst.
Not while it's operating, there aren't. And it isn't going to be detecting anything while it's sealed inside a superconducting shell.
The bottom line, though, is that even if we do decide to pull a Soviet Union and bankrupt our economy spending several hundred trillion dollars to build a missile defense, the warhead will arrive via UPS in a crate labeled medical equipment (or some such), and be detonated when someone sends the appropriate number to a standard pager.
No one is going to use an expensive, unreliable, obvious, and easily trackable delivery system like an ICBM when FEDEX is so much cheaper, anonymous, and guarantees that your warhead will be delivered by 10:00AM the following day.
Now there's a delivery system!
:-)
Dan |
