WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has ordered the U.S. military to begin deploying a national missile defense system with 10 interceptor rockets at a base in Alaska by 2004, administration officials said on Tuesday.
The decision, which comes despite last week's failure of an anti-missile test over the Pacific Ocean, was expected to be announced by the White House and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later in the day, the officials told Reuters.
Defense officials, who asked not to be identified, confirmed a report in The Washington Times that Bush was going ahead with an ambitious schedule to field 10 ground-based interceptors at Fort Greeley, Alaska, by 2004 and an additional 10 interceptors by 2005 or 2006.
Another Bush administration official said the interceptors could also possibly be deployed at Vandenberg Air Force base in California.
"It's the first deployment of the missile defense system," said the administration official, who asked not to be named. "We're talking about deployment in 2004."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....YCRBAELCFEY?type=politicsNews&storyID=1920093
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Great, another jobs program for PHds. It is a shame this missle defense doesn't work because of poor technology and decoys. Another boondoggle, but this time we spend hundreds of billions on a lemon.
The only way scientists say missle defense would work is if the missles were tipped with nuclear war heads. The explosion and EMP would destroy any decoys. But that would violate the international treaty against the use of nuclear weapons in space.
Peter
The decision, which comes despite last week's failure of an anti-missile test over the Pacific Ocean, was expected to be announced by the White House and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later in the day, the officials told Reuters.
Defense officials, who asked not to be identified, confirmed a report in The Washington Times that Bush was going ahead with an ambitious schedule to field 10 ground-based interceptors at Fort Greeley, Alaska, by 2004 and an additional 10 interceptors by 2005 or 2006.
Another Bush administration official said the interceptors could also possibly be deployed at Vandenberg Air Force base in California.
"It's the first deployment of the missile defense system," said the administration official, who asked not to be named. "We're talking about deployment in 2004."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....YCRBAELCFEY?type=politicsNews&storyID=1920093
____________________________________________________
Great, another jobs program for PHds. It is a shame this missle defense doesn't work because of poor technology and decoys. Another boondoggle, but this time we spend hundreds of billions on a lemon.
The only way scientists say missle defense would work is if the missles were tipped with nuclear war heads. The explosion and EMP would destroy any decoys. But that would violate the international treaty against the use of nuclear weapons in space.
Peter
(If some of you are canadian, its called sarcasm)
