Posted on 08/18/2006 10:59:50 AM PDT by Paul Ross
Pinging.
Smart idea and could be done with just setting up Arrow missile defense sites along the coasts and the borders every 100 miles or so.
Why do we have to telegraph our weaknesses? Let the idiots think we can defend against anything. We are our own worst enemy sometimes.
The anti-aircraft defenses are mostly dismantled. There is no defense in place against cruise missiles except for the few that can be intercepted by F-16s and F-22s. The old anti-aircraft missile sites are still there, but there is no hardware. Russia has about a brazillion anti-aircraft missiles in place. Perhaps the Pentagon can buy a few shiploads from them cheap.
If someone had asked you in 1995 what the biggest problem would be once a space based defense system were set up, what would your response have been?
Cruise missiles...
I'm certainly impressed that the DoD has discovered this gap.
This reminds me of the, "Well, we just never considered using an airliner as a missile, to be a serious possibility. Who knew?" defense.
Do we or do we not have think thanks? Evidently not!
Do we or do we not have an NSA, CIA and other spy agencies, people who look over the horizon? Evidently not!
We need Garrett Morris and his news for the deaf:
OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT:
THE USA IS VULNERABLE TO CRUISE MISSILE ATTACKS!!
It seems to me this was being widely discussed just after 9/11. From a purely layman point of view, this would seem awfully difficult to address as the reaction time is so small and the quantity of resources needed to guard against it so great.
Someone with a barge or container ship could be real trouble, been that way too many years..
Since old SovBlock and current era Russian weapons are showing up in Heeziville, perhaps some worry is in order.
What could be used?
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/rockets_cruise.html
http://www.vectorsite.net/twcruz6.html
http://www.vectorsite.net/twcruz7.html
When I was a kid in Prince Georges County, Md in the mid 50s I used to ride my bike way, way out in the woods. Out there, in the middle of nowhere, (about where Landover Arena is now,) was a National Guard 120mm AA gun battery, one of several that surrounded the capital area. I would have a cold Coke out of the machine at the gatehouse and go on my way.
In time, they were replaced by Nikes, and in a little more time, ground-based air defense was gone altogether. For the record, I always thought it was precipitous to abandon an area as critical as WDC to low- and medium-level threats.
Bring back the Duster!
I would not be surprised. Did you see this?
Russia Develops New Support Vehicle for S-300, Plans to Export
August 15, 2006 , Jane’s Information Group NewsRussia has developed a new reloading and missile-transportation vehicle for its S-300 air/missile defense systems, reports the September 1 issue of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets. The NPP Start scientific production enterprise released details of the new 22T6E2 vehicle at the recent Russian Expo Arms 2006 exhibition in Nizhniy Tagil. The 22T6E2 is based on Russian wheeled vehicles rather than the Ukrainian-manufactured KrAZ-260 wheeled chassis currently in use. The new vehicle, 10.8 m long, 3.2 m wide and 3.8 m high, can simultaneously load or unload two S-300 missiles and can relocate four missiles in approximately 30 minutes.
Jane’s reports that Russia plans to export the new S-300 vehicles immediately. In 2005, the designers completed all testing of the 22T6E2 and received a certificate for mass production. According to Gennadiy Mikhaylovics Muratshin, the general director of NPP Start, the factory already has production orders from four unspecified countries.
There were three AA gun sites around this town in WW II. One of the guns was placed so to also defend the base from the anticipated Japanese column. Then later there were Nike sites in a somewhat wider circle including radar. Then there was DEW and White Alice which may have been part of the same system, radar only. Then there was now, which is nothing but the sites and some of the signs are still up and some of the concrete is still there, and at Clear there is still radar strong enough to cook hotdogs in a few seconds. There is also the ABM which is there although we don't know much about it except it wouldn't work against cruise missiles.
Headline should read, "DOD concerned about armed balsa wood planes."
We got about as good a chance of being hit by a model plane as we do being hit with cruise missiles.
Unless of course we have to deal with mad mexicans and cantakerous canadiens.
Also, there are a couple of dirt roads mysteriously going along ridgelines and to hilltops that are now used as recreational outdoors access and subdivision access that are there only because of such sites as Nike. The state planners would never consider building such roads, although they might run a grader over them once a decade and call it maintenance.
I would worry about the Canadians. They appear mellow on the surface, but something is seething beneath to make them prefer to live in Canada.
I believe they were or are using these to check for gaps under a program called SMART. One was recently lost and it's pilot, Darn shame.
Thanks for posting.
"A Pentagon assessment of the U.S. capability to defend the homeland against incoming enemy cruise missiles has found what it calls “capability gaps” that may not be solved until 2015. "
And of course this has to be made public to make sure our enemies know all about it. (/sarcasm)
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