|
Missile defense (as currently designed by the US military) is futile when installed to stop intercontinental ballistic weapons It's difficult to explain without visual aids, but to summarize:
A modern Russian (and presumably Chinese) ballistic missile has multiple independently targeted warheads (MIRVs). A MIRV vehicle can be loaded with dummy warheads as well - as many as 20 or 30 could be feasible. Thus as the carrier opens, the defensive system would see a "shower" of 20 to 30 individual warheads descending. Because the dummies would have different mass and signature, a system may be designed to id the dummies, but I doubt this could be done in time, since the outgoing missiles have to launch as soon as an enemy vehicle is detected in flight - ie the US defense radars would have very little time to ID the decoys. And to make matters worse, a small nuke could be disguised to be ID'd as a decoy.
There's another issue, the system installed today lets through a certain percentage of the incoming warheads, and if only one gets throgh and detonates an EMP weapon, it would fry a lot of electronic devices - presumably the early launch vehicles would be loaded with EMPs to make sure they fry the US grid and launch the country into the 1800's within minutes.
Furthermore, a kinetic ABM as designed by the US requires a very steady target. Which means a single warhead device such as say Iran may have in 10 years can be designed to tumble slightly as it enters the atmosphere. And the US ABM kinetic system can't stop a tumbling warhead - which does so randomly, which means the targeting computer starts making wild guesses as it vectors the killer warhead in. It's fairly easy to show the ABM system is not viable against a tumbler, therefore the rest of the conversation amounts to: Once the other guys launch, the only option is retaliation, other type of resistance is futile.
An ABM system, however, is really good shooting down bombers. It's an outstanding weapon against planes, and has some use against medium range straight path warheads (such as SCUD warheads) - until the SCUD maker launches a tumbler warhead.
The drawback for a tumbler is its lack of accuracy, it may miss the target by miles. However, if the idea is to put a bomb over a large US city, refinery complex, or simply to put out an EMP blast, then accuracy isn't needed.
In conclusion, the US ABM system is bogus. Also, I would like to add, there's no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon, nor that they are processing weapons grade material. What Iran is doing is perfectly within the boundaries of the treaties it has signed, and efforts by the US to punish Iran are outside the realm of current international law. The US behaves this way to please Israel, which does have nuclear weapons outside of the Nuclear Non Proliferation treaty boundaries. And the US lacks a mutual defense treaty with Israel. Thus one can conclude US behavior is purely caused by the Israel Lobby, the same entity which was the principal cause of the US invasion of Iraq.
|