Pentagon Defends Missile Defense Program After Botched Test

[leftchick]

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200412%5CNAT20041216a.html


~snip~

But the failure of the interceptor missile to launch "is a serious setback for a program that had not attempted a flight intercept for two years," according to Philip Coyle, a former Pentagon chief weapons tester, who was quoted by Reuters.

The Pentagon is reportedly spending a total of $10 billion a year on the missile defense program. And the failed test follows criticism from defense policy watchdog groups about the overall effectiveness, and the financial burden, of the program.

In May of this year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published a report skeptical about the effectiveness of national missile defense and the strategy the Department of Defense had set for its deployment.

"The ballistic missile defense system that the United States will deploy later this year will have no demonstrated defensive capability and will be ineffective against a real attack by long range-ballistic missiles," the UCS claimed in the report.

"The administration's claims that the system will be reliable and highly effective are irresponsible exaggerations. There is no technical justification for deployment of the system ..." the liberal group argued.

[shraby]

1. Par for the course of this administration...

nothing works right.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. How many armored humvees can you get for one defective missile defense

system that you prolly don't need in the first place??

I'll bet you can get more than you can use. Ashewells.... where are their heads?? Oh nevermind.. someone already told me where they are. Sure is an improvement on the colonoscope.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. This is brilliant

Wednesday's test also was not a complete failure, Taylor said. "In this particular test, the target missile was successfully launched."

Titanic collision not a total disaster, says Captain - "iceberg still afloat"

[RC]

4. This is the program where they put a homing device

on the target and still missed.
$10 billion a year could buy a lot of education, health care and retirement for our citizens.

[Lost4words]

7. Dimson has "HIS BASE" to repay silly, n/t

86 43

[anderbre]

5. Thank God it's still broke.

Just think how terrible it would be if King George the Cowardly had a fully operational missle defense system to protect his ass. Alas, I'm sure the system is setup to ignore missles heading to blue states.

[Lost4words]

6. failure and more, failure and more, failure and more, .................

Anything this admin touches turns to shit for us and dollars for
"HIS BASE"

86 43

[bemildred]

8. Pentagon defends itself after botched destruction of Fallujah.

Pentagon defends military after botched invasion of Iraq.

The question is, when's the last time the Pentagon did anything that
was actually useful enough to justify all the money we shovel into
their budget?????