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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pgerassi who wrote (130155)	12/28/2000 7:59:12 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572191

Sure, Pete. You been following the current system "under development" for the past 19 ir 20 years? Every 6 months or so, it fails another test. That doesn't keep the head honchos of the military industrial complex pushing for deployment right away, of course. And with W in office, they'll probably get their way. Welfare spending for the defense industry is always fashionable in Republican circles. Just to inject a little outside information into the Tom Clancy fantasies that pass for discourse around here, this article came up near the top of a quick google search. Experts Play Down ABM Test Failure nytimes.com The second straight failure of a test for the proposed national missile shield has set off a barrage of criticism. But such breakdowns are routine in ambitious rocketry programs, even ones that eventually succeed, several military and industry experts outside the Pentagon say. The comments suggest that in the long run, a much larger challenge to the program will come from critics who say that no matter how well the shield eventually performs in the tightly controlled tests, it will be all but worthless in practice. "It's clearly the case that they'll be able to make this system work against a simple, laboratory-designed threat," said Dr. Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in military policy. "These failures someday will end. However, it doesn't mean it can defeat a real-world threat."

To: pgerassi who wrote (130155)	12/29/2000 10:50:12 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572191

"We had a proposed system to handle missile defense of say Washington for a limited strike " Was that Safeguard by any chance? If so, that was a two stage system, Spartan to hit missiles out of atmosphere, and Sprint for point defense. A big problem with the system (other than the large radar complex) was these were nuclear missiles. And some started to wonder if the EMP effects of our defenses would do more damage than a limited nuclear strike. Because in the long run, does it really make a difference if you are atomized or just starve to death because the whole infrastructure got hosed?