I’d encourage you to look at the ‘Intercept tests’ section and note that tests continue, and that results contine to be mixed.
You mean the results from the missiles that you said didn’t exist? Thanks for the update. If I need any more information on subjects you’re unfamiliar with I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop. :dubious:
If you want to be pedantic then, yes, the system exists. It is, however, not fully developed, not ready for deployment, and arguably not even capable of meeting its intended goals with further development. Its selection and the rush-job money thrown at it were done with little attention paid to the actual facts of its non-performance. This is a promising avenue of research, to be followed up on a la DARPA for potential future systems, not something ready to roll out right now.
This “missile shield” is an expensive boondoggle intended to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. The odds are very good that even if the problem does arise, and the substantial money is invested, that it will be technologically incapable of solving that problem when the time comes. Furthermore, due to its limited scope, it is vastly less costly for any attacking entity to defeat than it is for us to implement in the first place.
This European deployment program never should have been started, and needs to be killed solely on its own merits. That killing it may or may not have diplomatic gains is entirely secondary to that.
The missile shield is not a singular device but rather a compilation of many technologies which have multiple military applications. Just like every other system used by the military it is, and will continue to be, upgraded.
The shipborne system was active and ready to shoot down North Korean missiles had that nut-job actually launched one toward Hawaii.
Note to self: Putin is not a Bond villain, and “exporting nuclear technology and weapons to Venezuela” is not what it sounds like.
If pedantry was a defence, you’d be safe from all incoming.
It doesn’t, though, an argument make.
That’d be because the Navy has had missile interception capabilties for decades, because that’s been the primary weapon in naval engagements, be they air- or ship-delivered, since the Korean War. It’s not exactly a huge stretch to ponder aiming these systems at other missiles, and the surprising success of using Patriots outside their scope in Desert Storm was pretty encouraging.
The problem, however, is that you can’t just take a system created for shooting down cruise missiles aimed at the launching platform and expect it to actually be successful at shooting down ballistic missiles. The problem is several orders of magnitude more difficult, because ballistic missiles are harder to detect, move much faster, and will need to be intercepted at much longer ranges from the launcher. This has design repercussions through the entire system, as is reflected in the rather poor success rate even in carefully controlled tests.
I’d guess that with another 5 or 10 years to cook, we might actually have something that works reasonably well. Investment should be aimed at R&D towards that end, not mass-producing the current implementations.
Furthermore, this still doesn’t address the entirely valid argument that the most likely delivery of a nuclear warhead from a rogue state would not be via ballistic missile.
However, unlike other systems used used by the military, it was deployed while still under development.
GAO: Deployment Looms, But Missile Defense Remains Unproven
Some question the wisdom of pointing a half assembled M16 at Russia, and then daring them to nuke us.
I guess now that we’re the worlds only remaining superpower it’s OK to shout ‘neener neener’ at everyone as long as it builds support for aerospace welfare programs within the defense bereaucracy.
This will probably be part of the reciprocation:
You know who ELSE deployed experimental weapons systems while they were still under development?
This is great news. The only reason some people are pissed is because its Obama doing it and not a Rep president.
If we had a choice between being friends with Russia or Poland, I’d go for Russia. They’re bigger, stronger, richer, and would be potentially more dangerous if annoyed. I’m afraid too many people are stuck in some time warp Cold War mentality where anything to piss off the Russians are a good thing. Fact is, we need Russia more than we need Poland, and Bush was needlessly antagonizing them with a missile shield that didnt work.
Why not get rid of it? There is no downside to this move. Kudos to Obama for seeing through the political bullshit and pulling the plug on an antiquated system
Tell that to Polland.
It’s exactly what it sounds like. Venezuela is run by someone who is destroying free speech and attempting to stay in power indefinitely. Russia is arming an adversary to the United States while we are abandoning the same people who were brutally crushed in WWII only to be swallowed up Russia. They’re looking at Georgia and wondering if they’ll be next.
Between Russia supplying Iran with nuclear technology and Iran working closely with Venezuela it is just increasing the likelihood of another 3rd world despot becoming a nuclear power.
Russia doesn’t have the juice to become the USSR again. Let’s not get carried away.
All politics aside, the plan would have been a huge waste of money for a very limited amount of protection.
The plan was an under development, unproven boondoggle money pit.
Headlines should read: “Obama saves a shitload of money by cancelling a useless government program”
Your ‘nuclear technology and weapons’ sounds more like the Cuban missile crisis than it does ‘short range rockets’ and ‘help building atomic reactors’.
Were you aware of how scary your sentence sounded, or was it just an accident of phrasing?
Well, yes, except that money spent on useless weapons doesn’t count.
I’m sorry but wasn’t Obama the one that was going to improve relations with allies after the supposed isolation of the Bush years? Now the Eastern European nations feel dumped and betrayed and Western Europe isn’t happy either. (The British press is full of WTF Obama? stories.)
And all he gets for it is kind words and a smile from Putin? No wonder Putin is smiling, Russians love pushover liberals in the White House.
Venezuela is a true adversary of the U.S. only in the mind of Chavez. As much of a show as he makes of “flouting US influence and imperialism,” he still sells the US oil and that’s really the bottomline. Other than general annoyance, Chavez’s only significant accomplishment in hurting U.S. interests is encouraging fellow traveler Rafael Correa in Ecuador to not renew the U.S. lease on the drug trade interdiction Manas Air Base. Instead, American forces will just shift to bases in Colombia.
Unfortunately, the tests aren’t designed to truly simulate an actual attack, since the test “attack” missiles fly in a straight line and don’t have any decoys. Even then, the test results are still very mixed. Developing a ballistic missile interceptor is extremely tough, but deploying a system that isn’t even ready to tackle the problem under the most ideal conditions is seriously questionable. It’s not protecting us from anything or offering much of a deterrent. Instead, it’s a giant feel-good measure designed to give the appearance of doing something which anyone with any in-depth knowledge of its status knows it almost certainly can’t do yet.
Well, now, our tests have proven that it is possible to intercept and destroy a missile from a perfectly cooperative enemy! After only…what? Thirty years?
Also, the missile bases were apparently not very popular with the Polish or Czech people:
http://www.themonkeycage.org/2009/09/more_on_the_missile_shield_why.html
(warning: blog)
His data source, for those of you who read Czech and want to check him, is:
http://www.cvvm.cas.cz/upl/zpravy/100938s_pm90713.pdf
and
The polls came from this publication: