Missile defense system on schedule for launch: Pentagon

[ConcernedCanuk]

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2004-04-22 12:54:28

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A top Pentagon official in charge of missile defense said Wednesday a limited missile defense system would be in place by the end of the year, meeting a key goal President George W. Bush set in this election year.

Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that thePentagon will have deployed eight interceptors by the end of the year, followed by 12 in the next year.

/snip/

The Bush administration plans to deploy a preliminary missile defense system of six rocket interceptors in Alaska and four in California by the end of September, saying the United States needssuch a system to guard against long-range missile attacks by so-called rogue states.

But critics said the timetable is devised to field a missile defense system less than two months before the election so Bush can point to it as a fulfilled campaign pledge. They said a rush to deployment could lead to unforeseen cost increases and technical failures.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/22/content_1434473.htm
That last line about "technical failures" bothers me . .

As for "costs"

well we know how well the budget is going SO far!

[bobthedrummer]

1. Air Force 2025 link, read USAF revolutionary planning part slowly

http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/

[JohnOneillsMemory]

15. 'MITCH': Man In The CHair quotes Machiavelli and seeks Dr. Evil powers!

(Dammit, Bobthedrummer, you always give the best links at du. Thanks.)
Look at where they want to take the control of space and the planet>>

>snip<

The Man In The Chair:
Cornerstone Of Global Battlespace Dominance

A Research Paper
Presented To
Air Force 2025
by
Comdr Clarence E. Carter, USN
Maj Ronald A. Grundman
Maj Kevin G. Kersh
Maj Cynthia L. A. Norman
Maj Curtis O. Piontkowsky
Maj David W. Ziegler

April 1996

A general should possess a perfect knowledge of where he is carrying on a war.
-Niccolo di Bernardo Machiavelli

Knowledge of the battlefield has always been a matter of life or death for the warrior. By 2025, the importance of this concept will be magnified¾growing weapon lethality and ever-tightening decision cycles will demand near-real-time and continuous battlefield awareness. In short, possessing knowledge will not simply determine who will live but who will win.

In addition to developing a vision, this paper proposes the capabilities required to bring that vision into reality¾truly global surveillance, responsive high-resolution reconnaissance, around-the-clock access, fusion of data into information, and answers for decision makers at the right place and time. These capabilities are brought together in a human analogy, the "Man in the Chair." This analogy provides a conceptual understanding for a new system that will serve as the cornerstone of global battlespace dominance. The paper identifies the specific technologies required to build such a system. What emerges is a powerful mix of small satellite, high-capacity communication, processing, storage, and artificial intelligence technologies. The system is called MITCH, "Man In The CHair."

[bobthedrummer]

17. The neo-conservative dominated USAF think tanks came up with RPMA

Revolution in Political and Military Affairs also in 1996 when the Clinton haters were peaking in the Pentagon imho. Just read this futuristic address to a post-US military coup group of commanders-again this is from 1996 from USAF think tank at Maxwell AFB.
RPMA link USAF INSS Occasional Paper 11
http://www.guerrillacampaign.com/coup.htm

[mulethree]

18. good stuff - 2025 geopolitical projections

"The 2025 team used the creative but disciplined alternate futures procedure to describe various plausible future worlds, each separate and distinct, and each offering different security and planning challenges.

In the first world, the U.S.'s military might is constrained by many world players with other forms of power.

A second world depicts the extreme impacts of a future dominated by multinational corporate giants.

A third world is a scary future in which information and biogenetic technology is dispersed, giving individuals and small groups untold power.

In a fourth world, the U.S. loses its status as a superpower to an Asian colossus.

A fifth future envisions a world marked by fundamental changes in the social structure, environment and the international security system, making it difficult for the United States to determine how best to exert its power and influence.

The final world depicts how a major conflict in 2015 could shape events in 2025."


http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/

[bif]

2. Remind me again how many successful intercepts they've had?

Was it one out of six, or something like that? And it used a pre-programmed GPS system, didn't it?

[daleo]

11. And the target was shouting "pick me", in electronics lingo

Because otherwise the interceptor would never have been able to pick it out from the decoys.

[LeinesRed]

3. I feel much safer!

Because...surely this will stop another 9/11 style attack.... right?
:wtf:

[Superfly]

4. You want to stump any Freeper on this issue?

Ask him how successful Patriot and/or THAAD are....

[papau]

5. A 25% chance of shooting down one missile - based on untested working

Huge number of reports on this - that our media is ignoring as they publish Rove/Bush PR handouts.

The system is "on schedule" because they skipped the old fashioned concept of testing and making sure it works.

And if it does work as per specs we will have a 25% chance of taking out the missile.

Do you think our National Media will ever report what our $20 Billion has really purchased by way of defense -

or even note that this is the baby that was the subject of Condi's planned 9/11 Speech on the new - Non-Clinton - direction that the Bush folks would take as terrorists were an "overblown" threat - and that the speech was canceled because Bush was wrong, and had let down our defense against terrorism that Clinton had successfully used in the millennium threat, to the point that 3,000 folks died?

[UpInArms]

6. star wars garbage

dreamed up by Rev. Moon and Raygun

:puke:

waste of money

:puke:

stupid asshole PNAC masturbation

:puke:

Need to clean keyboard :argh:

[bemildred]

7. Very limited. nt

[salvorhardin]

8. I hear they've perfected missle defense now

The basic idea is to launch Colin Powell into orbit with a really big slingshot.

[mmm]

9. Worthless, totally worthless

Anyone with the ability to launch a nuclear warhead
knows how to beat this system - assuming it ever works at all.
Even if it worked, which it does not, it would be useless against
an all out attack from Russia or China.
The first nuclear attack on the US will not be via airmail. The warheads may be transported here by plane, but detonation will occur
inside ships or at the epicenter of large cities.

[damnraddem]

10. Well, that'll show the terrorists! Those missiles will surely prevent ...

box cutters from reaching the U.S.

[Bandit]

12. I guess I differ with most here

I like the concept. Notice I said concept. I don't like the cost of what we have now and are creating and I don't think our technoligy is up to the task just yet but what is wrong with trying to secure our air space from some future airborne attack? I personally think defense is far more preferable to offense which is what we have going on at the present. I also think there may be a time when we need some protection from some non-terrestial object and not sure we have that now. Okay start the fl;ames. I would rather send some funds for research into how best to accomplish such a defensive plan than to build a hundred more B-2 bombers. Just my $.02 worth

[bobthedrummer]

13. Well one outcome of all this has been the start of another arms race

and upgrading of military equipment against Russia, despite the statements of Putin and Bush.

A RNC questionaire has support of Reagan era SDI as the very first question asked.

George W. Bush aka The War President:grr:

[louis-t]

14. Didn't work 20 years ago, still doesn't work.

Pardon my simplistic viewpoint, but this is just pissing money away for the sake of intimidating someone into believing it works. Repubs know how to waste money better than anyone in the world. Look how much * is spending on his campaign. Twice what Kerry will spend just to stay even. Isn't it usually the other way around with an incumbent?

[ConcernedCanuk]

16. You saying that you CAN'T hit a bullet with a bullet ?

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And besides, even if they DID work, the "enemy" whomever they might be, ain't going to just send one or two when all hell breaks loose.

And who woulda thought it would be the USA to get it all going, eh?

We were all so convinced it would be the "commies" in Russia, or the "reds" in China.

Heck, China and Russia mostly mind their own business!

But the USA won't win if they start the nuke thing.

China alone can suffer losing 3 times the population of the USA and still have half a Billion people left over, and alot of them are USED to surviving on next to nothing,

Not so the United States.

What the USA should start doing is try to figure out how to get along in the world without threats/bribes and wars.

Or just build a wall around itself before the rest of the world does.

(sigh)

and yeah - :grr: