Missile Interceptor in Alaska to Be First in National Defense System

[BaysideLiberal]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A ground-based missile interceptor was installed Thursday in Alaska's Interior - the first component of a national defense system designed to shoot down enemy missiles.
Crews at Fort Greely lowered the 55-foot-long, three-stage interceptor into one of six silos built behind a double perimeter fence reinforced by heavy barbed wire.

"We're coming to the end of an era where we have not been able to defend our country against long-range ballistic missile attacks," said Major Gen. John Holly, who heads the ground-based missile defense program for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.

Five additional interceptors will be installed at the 700-acre complex - another four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California - by the end of the year. Ten more will be installed at Fort Greely by late 2005, launching the Bush administration's multibillion dollar system.

Missile defense is an essential part of President Bush's national security policy. It hasn't been as politically divisive as President Reagan's more elaborate "Star Wars" program, but Democrats complain the administration is spending billions of dollars to deploy interceptors without conducting adequate tests to see if they will even work

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBMUYIJZWD.html

[Tyler Durden]

1. happy happy, joy joy.

And since the Russian's Rocket Force is for all practical purposes defunct, just WHAT pray tell will this boondoggle defend against?

Osama with a slingshot??

[steely]

3. My thoughts exactly! Perhaps it was just a matter of

convenience - by converting some pre-existing anachronistic facility with a pointless boondoggle of an upgrade to meet some bogus milestone.

[tabasco]

9. Don't underestimate the Russians.

They already have a missile system that defeats Star Wars. Not that it's a real hard thing to do. This is plain and simple a corporate enrichment program. A boondoggle. A treasonous waste of taxpayer money. Reagan concocted Star Wars in order to destroy social security more than anything else. For any other purpose it's useless.

On edit: There's a reason the Russians were so willing to let us scrap the ABM Treaty. They realize Star Wars is a useless system. The Russians are letting the republicans spend this Nation into oblivion. Same strategy we usedd against them in the cold war.

[atreides1]

2. This Is .....

...like putting a sign on your front door that says "Beware, this house is guarded by a man eating Tiger", and you hope that a thief doesn't believes it.

[truthisfreedom]

4. rogue nations don't read the news, didn't you hear? they don't even KNOW

that the missile defense system can't work when trying to shoot down a tumbling missile. which is the kind that rogue nations shoot, because they don't have the technology to make missiles that fly straight. they sort of land wherever, too, which is a bit of an annoyance to the victim.

[LastDemocratInSC]

5. Missile interceptor in Alaska to be the last to hit an incoming warhead

A few months ago the Russians announced that they are developing a hypersonic missile that cruises through the atmosphere and can out-maneuver anything our "National Defense System" can throw at it. NASA also recently flight tested 2 versions of the same kind of craft with great success, so you can count on the Russians being able to do it as well.

These hypersonic craft fly at very high speeds, around mach 7 to 10, in the atmosphere and just steer around the Star-Wars rockets being fired at them. The Star-Wars rockets are designed to intercept incoming ballistic warheads at the edge of space. So, the Russians decided to have their warheads delivered by a highly maneuverable craft instead of a ballistic craft, and to have it fly in the atmosphere instead of coming in from an altitude of hundreds of miles.

It's just like in one of the "Indiana Jones" movies where Indiana is about to get stomped by a big dude with a whip. Indiana has only a knife and the whip is snapping all around Indiana's head. So, after dancing around madly to avoid the whip, Indiana just pulls out a gun and shoots the guy. The Russians are just going to pull out their hypersonic gun and clobber us with it.

And, the Star-wars program should actually be called what it is: "National Defense Subsidy Program".

Here are the links (cut and paste as needed):

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/29/international0906EST0498.DTL

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62350,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_7

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43_soars_feature.html

[MisterP]

6. star wars, interceptors obsolete

on to the next boondoggle (and a Middle Eastern Star Wars--Israel-Iran-Syria)

[General Zod]

13. Even without a hypersonic missile .....

......the Russians could overwhelm this system by MIRVing their missiles. Remember, the Start treaty banned all heavy missiles such as the SS-18 and the MX. It also banned placing multiple warheads on missiles. It would be easy to overwhelm an ABM system by the sheer numbers of warheads that could be deployed against it. That is why this ABM system is so dangerous. It may escalate a new arms race.

[kikiek]

7. Lines the pockets of those big defense corps that love W.

They have a direct line feeding them the taxypayers money. They don't care if it works.

[BattyDem]

8. How exactly will this protect us from ...

dirty bombs, suicide bombers, chemical weapons, biological weapons, car bombs and all the other techniques favored by terrorists? :eyes:

[roguevalley]

10. they've been testing these turkeys. they miss unless the target carries

a homing device. remember that. a homing device.

[BattyDem]

12. I always mention that fact ...

to my RW friends when they say, "We need this to protect us!"

I say, "Well unless the 'rogue nations' are kind enough to strap a homing device to the missile before they launch it, this system won't protect us from a damn thing!"

Then they tilt their heads and give me a blank stare ... kinda like my dog does when he's confused, LOL! When did people lose all their common sense? :eyes:

[CHIMO]

11. How Does It

Take out a missile? Does it require a direct hit or a big explosion in close proximity?

[NYC]

14. How very rich we must be

to throw away money like this.