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To: USAF_SSgt
You raise good questions, and a lot of this must be worked out before these systems get operationally deployed (especially in the US).

I guess you can tell, I was once peripherally involved in the business (I worked at Avantek). I knew about the multiple targeting capability, but IIRC the numbers were ten to fifteen simultaneous targets. One wonders about the ability of the radar to distingush hundreds of simultaneous targets with decent depth of field.

To me those were obvious questions before plunking down the money for a pricey system that will itself be a prime target for terrorist ground attack. One has to ask whether going the route of an expensive and supposedly capable defense is worth the risk compared to the demonstrated willingness to use massive retaliation, ESPECIALLY when it's so easy to smuggle weapons into the US inside cargo containers. My thinking is that we should be concentrating on that problem instead.

I am reminded that somehow Andrews AFB couldn't get a couple of guys with a Stinger deployed in time to stop an incoming passenger jet with over an hour of warning between the time of the first highjacking and the time of the hit on the Pentagon. After spending trillions on defense, that one still burns me.

50 posted on 11/03/2003 11:20:32 AM PST by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to manage by politics.)
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To: Carry_Okie
I was about to ask what your background was, you are very knowledgable.
I have a question (unrelated to lasers or infrared) for you: how do you get the little saying after your name in the threads?
And your concern for radar to distinguish hundreds of targets, as well as a couple of good guys with Stingers (especially when I thought the White House had them already), is great. Now that you mention it, the fact that we had all that time and STILL couldn't get our act together is very disturbing.
51 posted on 11/04/2003 6:32:38 AM PST by USAF_TSgt
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