To: Bald Eagle who wrote (228060 ) 2/18/2002 1:19:15 PM From: TigerPaw Respond to I searched the site for "missle" and found only one article. Nevertheless, recent political developments may undermine the sense of urgency behind the tactical missile defense initiatives. The political rapprochement between North and South Korea, if it lasts, should reduce North Korea's incentive to export ballistic missiles. North Korea has been the major source of missile technology of concern to the U.S., with extensive sales and technical support to Iran, Syria and Pakistan. Without this technical support, a number of ballistic missile programs in the developing world will collapse or be significantly delayed. Iran's missile programs have not proceeded as quickly as some had anticipated, with yet another launch failure this past year. The wild card in all of this is Russia. Leakage of Russian technology to Iran has been a source of concern to the U.S. government. Russia is beginning an export drive on a new Scud follow-on, the Iskander, which if successful, could dramatically change the nature of the threat. Iskander is a modern solid-fuel missile using a highly automated and survivable launcher. aviationnow.com Pentagon acquisition chief Pete Aldridge last month canceled a terminal-phase missile program, Navy Area Missile Defense, citing budget overruns, and said that whatever replaced it would rely on "proven technology, such as hit-to-kill." But much of the Navy's missile-defense community favors a blast-warhead approach as a kind of insurance policy, just in case the hit-to-kill intercept only comes close to scoring a direct hit. aviationnow.com
