Posted on 07/18/2003 5:53:59 PM PDT by Diogenesis
Robert Park, (Democrat, American Physical Society) uses the American Physical Society
as his personal weekly whip against the present administration, against US security,
and against science investigations of alternative energy.
Nearly always there is a paucity of physics or science in the APS/Park political diatribes.
In this week's American Physical Society rant, Robert Park
again attacks America's future antimissile system,
as he and the APS (American Physical Society) again ignores .... physics.
The excerpt:
Friday, July 18, 2003
NOTE: Nothing in this issue is based on British Intelligence.
1. MISSILE DEFENSE: APS BOOST-PHASE STUDY - IT’S ABOUT TIME.
On Tuesday, the APS held a Washington press conference to release
a massive 3-year study of the feasibility of attacking a ballistic missile
while its rockets are still firing - the first layer of the president’s
missile defense plan. Rockets may be easy to spot, but even if it’s
forty-year old technology, boost phase only lasts four minutes;
newer solid-fuel rockets, maybe three. Conclusion? You’re not
gonna get there in time. And even if you could, countermeasures
are easy. In other words, the best boost-phase interceptor would
be obsolete as soon as it’s built. The study’s authors studiously
declined to draw policy implications. What’s New is under no
such constraint. As one physicist who read the report put it,
"Even if it would work it wouldn’t work, but it won’t work."
A week before release of the APS study, the Senate slashed
funding for boost-phase interceptor development.
=====================================
Comment: Does the American Physical Society or Mr. Robert Park mention LASERS?
No. Why not. Because even by the group velocity of their energy pulse,
the beam can easily reach the relatively very slowly rising rockets.
But then physics never matters to Park or the What's New Political column.
No physics. No science. Only unnamed individuals of no probative
value with conveniently-supportive allegations.
CONCLUSION: Nothing in the APS' What's New appears to based on physics intelligence.
Today's supercomputer is literally tomorrow's dinosaur. I remember those first digital watches coming out. $200 or so for something you buy today for a dollar and stick on your car's dashboard if you wish.
Secondly, it's always, "the missile missed its target today. It'll never work. Let's scrap the whole thing"
If we listened to such nonsense, we wouldn't show progress in any field.
Because their own scientists are convinced that it could work, that's why. So for now, I suppose our adversaries will have to rely on 'good Americans' like Mr Park to help them close any gap.
It's possibly because they think NMD is really a smokescreen to cover our deployment of offensive space-based platforms that'll make ICBMs obsolete by comparison within a couple of decades. As publicly advertised, there's not much to NMD that they don't have the resources to overcome and preserve their deterrent.
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