Posted on 04/27/2003 9:26:53 AM PDT by miltonim
More correctly, rendering nuclear missiles worthless. Nukes smuggled into a city by rogue governments or non-profit organizations, or delivered by FedEx or UPS would not be affected by SDI, no matter how well developed it was.
New military technology creates new military strategy. War was mostly preempted by the State during the middle ages, and now may be returning to the realm of non-State entities (Clans, ethnic groups, religious orders, etc.) as well as the official State; Or to State/non-State enterprises (aka Public/Private partnerships) to give States deniability and avoid direct conflict between armies.
People
The U.S. military expends great amounts of time and money on training recruits, with good results. Each service branch maintains it's own training schools in addition to interservice schools. Any reasonably bright, literate teenager can be transformed into any kind of clerk, technician, a medic, or a human version of 'The Terminator'.
Officers are even more highly trained. Starting with college graduates the services turn out pilots, commanders, intelligence officers, logistics officers, and infantry officers.
Retention of all types of personnel is reasonably good, adding to an experience pool that the next round of recruits can draw on.
By 1984 and beyond we had increased our qualitative edge and decreased the numerical differences. We also had started to develop new doctrine and weapons systems.If Red Army had made a thrust in '87 or '88 they'd have died before our guns. That was understood after Desert Storm.
The author is correct about our superiority leading others to develop nukes. Makes me think that the boys at Los Alamos and Livermore have a lot more magic in the pipeline to neutralize these wannabes.
It takes a lot more sophistication to manufacture nukes that small. Considering the success the Patriot missle batteries had in shooting down Iraqi Scuds and Al Samud missles in Kuwait during Gulf War II, I doubt North Korea can actually deliver any nukes it has to South Korea.
By J. Michael Waller
published in the Washington Times December 15, 1998
Russia's new government leaders have yet to devise a coherent recovery plan as they beg for Western economic and food aid. But instead, they have been spending their time and money preparing for -- of all things -- nuclear war against the United States and its allies.
Meanwhile the Clinton administration has pledged more aid and is flirting with reopening the cash spigots to the Russian Central Bank. A chronology of recent events reveals a sharp disconnect between Western policy and Russian preparations for armed conflict:
October 4: In his first televised interview as First Deputy Prime Minister, Yuri Maslyukov, a Communist and a former leader of Soviet military industry who is now in charge of the Russian economy, told NTV, "We are barely able to provide our people with the most basic necessities." Even so, he called for building the ultramodern, fifth-generation SS-27 intercontinental ballistic missile -- a three-stage, solid-fuel rocket the Russians call RS-12M2 or Topol-M -- at a rate of more than one every ten days for the next few years. Presently, Moscow is financially incapable of such an ambitious project. Mr. Maslyukov wanted more easy Western loans, stressing, "We are demanding that help."
October 5: Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov led a delegation to Washington to lobby for release of a $4.3 billion International Monetary Fund cash payment to the Russian Central Bank, and for Western countries to send an additional $2.5 billion -- which is now being withheld until Moscow presents a sensible economic reform plan.
October 6: Meanwhile, Mr. Maslyukov again insisted on the rearmament of Russia's strategic nuclear forces, and Russia's Long-Range Aviation forces began a massive, three-day exercise involving nearly all operational military airfields in the country, from Europe to eastern Siberia. Tu-95, Tu-160, and Tu-22MZ bombers fired missiles in a doomsday drill, a simulated mass bombing.
The enemies in the scenario were not potential threats like Iran and China. Instead, the exercise practiced bombing raids on NATO countries, combat flights against Japan, a nuclear strike on a presumed American aircraft carrier group, and a nuclear missile attack on a strategic target understood to be the continental United States. Air Force Commander-in-Chief Anatoly Kornukov spoke of Tu-95 flights up to the North Pole -- the flight path the bombers would take in a nuclear attack on the United States.
October 7: The Strategic Rocket Forces launched an SS-19 ICBM to study the feasibility of extending the 20-year-old missiles' service life. Fired from the Baikonur space center in Kazakstan, the SS-19's dummy warhead struck its target nearly a third of the way around the Earth in the Pacific Ocean off Kamchatka, southwest of Alaska.
The same day, Dow Jones reported that Russia planned to ask the United States for millions of tons of free grain to feed its people. Washington readily agreed. Meanwhile, the mock air attacks on Europe, Japan and the United States continued...
You, who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no other...'
Isaiah 47
Actually, the DPRK fields about 25 antiquated subs, the newest being 20 odd Soviet Romeo's (like the one that washed up on a South Korean beach while dropping infiltrators a few years back. Seems the crew had plenty of U.N. food rations on board, as well.) They also have a handful of Whiskey class.
They do have a few hundred PT boats, with machine guns, and the occasional rocket launcher. They have some large hovercraft for infantry transport, and the classic landing ships for troops (some are so old they may be U.S. WWII vintage).
As I recall they have one or two large surface ships. I'm not a squid, but I've heard them assess the effective combat power of the North Korean Navy against ours as being negligible. Any squids care to comment?
Now only a nuclear state, like, perhaps, North Korea, has any military leverage against the winner, so, paradoxically, the runaway U.S. victory in the conventional arms race might inspire a new round of proliferation of atomic weapons.
This is an example of a very dangerous (and socialist) view put out by liberals embarassed by American military might. What must also be analyzed is the US battle plan for confronting a state with a modest number of nukes of unknown reliability. My guess is that this would involve using a significant number of moderate yeild nukes in regions of likely housing of the enemy nukes. This would not be a repeat of the targeted siting seen in Iraq that would endeavor to spare the building next door. Nations (and the general public) must understand the consequences of taking the decision to go nuclear. Baghdad is getting its electricity and water back with less than one month's interruption. Pyongyang would likely be vitrified. Reporters who do make this clear are making a bad situation worse.
Russia leads the world in satillite launches...with an ability to place the heaviest of payloads into low earth orbit.
Russia's rocketry prowess goes beyond the massive booster vehicle known as "Energia".
Her complex booster rockets from the "Proton" series have zenithed Ariane's consortium..who are still picking their teeth off the floor from many repeated failures from the equitorial launch site in Guyanna.
Proton series has seen additonal changes to propellant and computerization....having multi stage with Cryogenics the rockets booster is there for Russia's "Strategic Space forces"...Russia's Birds are not the antiquated reflection of so many articles.
Rumored...Russia may have devloped an ICBM which flies nap of the earth..like a cruise missile...removing itself from high arc launch trajectory.
If so...no defensive shield exists to blunt this tactical reality by the U.S.
True..Aegeis ships could engage..but they are limited as per availabilty and location designation.
Russia tends not to boast of their Sapce command..to some degree they walk with the theme of a Weak stumbling Russia...allowing the aspect to cover their R and D and many deep undergound missile complexes in the heartland.
Yes...both Russia and China are like some Giant rising from the floor from a drunken stupor....they are learning and applying what they deem neccessary as offset to Americas Military Primacy.
What is "not true"? "I wrote "The Russians were shocked at what we did during the first gulf war." I'm not sure hat you mean because it seems you agree with me?
I assure you I'm absolutely accurate that the Russians were shocked at what we did during the first gulf war. Unless the person this information came from was incorrect. Which I doubt because that person is an adviser in the oval office today and has spoken personally with the Russian military commanders of that time.
No, I think what would trump everything is a teeny tiny missile that flies into the enemy's bedroom, crawls inside his ear, and sticks a probe into his brain that allows the CIA to take control of his body.
Now put down those nukes, Mr. Kim, nice and slow . . . .
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