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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: tekboy who wrote (14157)12/20/2001 2:22:06 PM
From: Hawkmoon  Read Replies (2) of 281500
 
Depends on how you define "working".. :0)

If we had taken this approach with the proximity fuse being 100% effective, it would never have been developed.

Early versions were only 50% effective, but that was still 50% more effective than timed fuses they normally used when engaging attacking aircraft with AAA.

By 1944, they had worked out the bugs to such a degree that they could then incorporate it into artillery shells, which then enabled US artillery spotters to call down devastatingly effective airburst barrages upon the enemy.

So the real question is whether deploying such a missile defense system will provide "reasonable defense" which translates into tremendous deterrence. I don't have to shoot down 100% of your missiles in order to make you think twice about your chances of successfully launching against the US mainland.

But of course, this does nothing for smuggled WMD, including biological and chemical. One of the things I've always feared is that those oceans, which provide such a great obstacle to a successful invasion of the US, also provide a wonderful ability to devastate us with a biological attack, while suffering little collateral damage to other continental populationss.

In such a circumstance the entire American continent would be quarantined by the Europeans and Asians.

Hawk
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