Overlooked in the defense budget cuts is the decimation of missile defense systems. As North Korea tested an ICBM, our defense secretary was scrapping a system that could have destroyed it with a single shot.
By Investor’s Business Daily << FYI Nut-jobs such as JimmysNutZ – This is known as a “by-line”. Get it?
Obama's Missile Tests
We will miss the F-22 Raptor, perhaps the only plane that could evade the sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system Russia is selling to Iran.
Russia’s S-300 system is “one of the most lethal, if not the most lethal, all-altitude area defense” systems, according to the International Strategy and Assessment Service, a Virginia-based think tank.
But the aircraft we and the nation will miss the most is the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, killed in Gates’ general slashing of missile defense, cuts which will reduce the budget of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) by $1.4 billion in 2010, or about 15%. Gates proposes turning the ABL into a research program.
Whoopee.
The YAL-1A, a modified Boeing 747-400F equipped with a megawatt-class, high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) is designed to destroy ballistic missiles in their very vulnerable boost phase, missiles such as Iran’s Shahab series and North Korea’s Taepodong series.
According to the MDA, the ABL provides a unique capability “to detect, track, and destroy ballistic missiles shortly after launch during the boost phase. Its revolutionary use of directed energy makes it unique among the United States’ airborne weapons systems, with a potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light with a range of several hundred kilometers.”
Gen. B.B. Bell, the former commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, wrote in 2007 that “from a war fighter’s perspective, the ABL will be an important ingredient in our much needed and required layered missile defense capability for the Korean Peninsula.”
It would also be part of a layered defense for the U.S. But not any more.
A layered defense against ballistic missiles was what President Ronald Reagan had in mind when he launched the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. It would include space-based, sea- and land-based defenses as well as mobile theatre systems such as THAAD (Theatre High Altitude Area Defense), Patriot missiles and the airborne laser.
Such a layered system could deal with all threats from all sources.
Unlike its fixed-site cousins, the ground-based interceptors deployed in California and Alaska and (hopefully) Europe, ABL aircraft can be deployed where needed and are reusable.
Imagine them patrolling the Persian Gulf or the Taiwan Strait, or off the Korean Peninsula.
Not only can they patrol off unfriendly nations, they could patrol our shores, too.
We have pointed out the dangers of an Iranian freighter launching a Shahab that would detonate its warhead high over the U.S., unleashing an electromagnetic pulse that would send our high-tech economy back to the days of covered wagons.
ABL aircraft would patrol in pairs at 40,000 feet, flying in orbits over friendly airspace or international waters, scanning the horizon for plumes of rising missiles. The ABL would acquire and track the missile with a tracking laser, while computers calculate the distance to and trajectory of the target.
Gates has also put on hold additional ground-based interceptors based at Ft. Greeley in Alaska.
Also targeted for elimination by Gates is the Multiple Kill Vehicle.
A single interceptor equipped with this payload of multiple kinetic missile killers, will not only destroy the re-entry vehicle, but all credible threat objects including countermeasures the enemy deploys to try and spoof our defenses.
Six Senators, Republicans Murkowski, Sessions, Inhofe, and Kyl as well as Democrats Lieberman and Begich, have written a letter to President Obama calling on him to restore Gates’ cuts, noting that “our adversaries continue to invest large sums in the development” of offensive missiles of all types.
While Gates does provide additional support for theatre defenses such as Aegis and THAAD, it is a minimalist approach in a world in which our enemies are turning out missiles like sausages, and only a single warhead can end life in the United States as we know it.
captain trips
on Apr 8th, 2009
@ 3:04 pm:
Alright alright… jimmyz’s a numbwit. We knew that yesterday
In spite of his claim to “we’ll be watching you…” I can almost guarantee he’s found greener pastures to troll around in already. IF he’s finished cleaning his bong and smoking the doobage he had left from the weekend LOL
You’re wasting space trying to show jimmyzit anything as complicated as a “byline.”
captain trips
on Apr 8th, 2009
@ 3:09 pm:
Back to the story ….
…. Obama and America will probably get a BIG ASS wake up call soon. I wouldn’t be at all surpised by something incredible happening anytime. Especially this summer or fall.
Obama is a dumbass. That much is clear. Unfortunately, this fact will be UNDERLINED for all of us soon I think.
nocompromise
on Apr 8th, 2009
@ 4:32 pm:
Remember Biden saying that in the next 6 month faux-bama would be tested and you won’t like what he will do! Hmmm.
Get your gas masks ready!
Oh, and the JimmysnutZ thing, well, we thought we would emphasis the obvious!
captain trips
on Apr 8th, 2009
@ 7:06 pm:
Yeah, biden and jimmyzits …. maybe they’re the same PERSON ? LOL
You have to wonder
Obama is gonna do magic for all of America I think. He’s gonna can his OWN ass right in front of the entire world. THAT might be the “wake up call” we get who knows. I’d rather it be that than the other. Either way it’s not gonna be pretty.
nocompromise
on Apr 8th, 2009
@ 9:11 pm:
JimmysNutz!
Lying hypocrites who cause strife will not be allowed to post on this blog! Take your assumptions, false allegations, control issues, petty striving, and go elsewhere!
You are not welcome here! This blog is NOT public, it is private just like my home. I would never allow people like you to cross over my threshold!
It’s really too bad that you are a self-righteous, jealous person, but explains why you create strive and hang out with others who do the same. We all clearly see the kind of fruit that is on your tree!
You and your girlfriend chose to single me out because I would not allow you to use my previous blog as your “beat up on Karen” blog. You and your girlfriend were pretty tea’d off that I would not allow you to call yourselves Christians while you beat up on someone else as you use my blog to ply your strife on!
I still have the emails and can make them public! << By they way, Karen said about 10 words and you and your girlfriend have spent alot of time conspiring over those few words. Gee, I wonder who took it personal!
You and your girlfriend get pretty petty when you don’t get your way. I just wonder why after two months of silence from you two that all of sudden you come out with your stellar investigative journalism for a personal attack on me! How very Christian of you!
Wow! If it weren’t for Christians like you two, perhaps Jesus wouldn’t get such a bad rap!
You are part of the Erev Rav, and we are commanded to have nothing to do with people like you two!
Grow up, Jimmy. If you get away from that girlfriend of yours, you might see the Light!
captain trips
on Apr 9th, 2009
@ 6:22 am:
Ah jeez.
Forget that guy. He’s a clownboy that doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Give the kid a break. He probably needs counseling LOL
captain trips
on Apr 9th, 2009
@ 8:02 am:
Here’s my fill in for jimmyzitz. In case we we’re missing him
…. What you’re doing is wrong blah blah blah, what you’re doing is immoral blah blah blah, what you’re doing is plaigerism blah blah blah, what you’re doing… I don’t like it.
And you call yourself a Christian blah blah blah. You can’t be a Christian blah blah blah, because I don’t like your blog blah blah blah. You can’t be a Christian blah blah blah, because I don’t like you blah blah blah. You can’t be a Christian you can’t be a Christian you can’t be a Christian you can’t be a Christian because because because blah blah blah.
I’m gonna watch you blah blah blah blah blah blah, and I tell you, I’M GONNA DO SOMETHING blah blah blah !
I’m gonna.
I’m gonna.
I’m gonna.
I’m gonna do something. I tell you, I’m gonna do something.
I mean it, I’m gonna do something.
Really, I’m gonna do something. blah blah blah blah blah blah. You’re not a Christian mumble mumble grumble mumble. You can’t be a Christian mumble mumble.
You’re a fraud, you’re a liar, you’re dumb, you . . . you . . . you’re dumb. And a liar . . . and a fraud. And and and you make stuff up. And you’re a fraud, you’re a liar, you’re dumb. And I don’t like you. And I’m not gonna give you no dessert.
You you … you … you … you dumb dumb !!!
Oh yeah, I tell the truth and you DON’T. You dumb person you. You’re a tooty head and I’m gonna tell on you.
nocompromise
on Apr 9th, 2009
@ 9:28 am:
Yep, JimmysnutZ and his gurlfriend can’t just have an opinion, they have to bring it to a place off personal attacks and harassment motivated by grudges and unforgiveness! Why? As one of my readers pointed out they are obsessed with me. She might just be right.
I had to blacklist these two because they think they have a right to come into my private space, and harass myself and people who comment on this blog who they are also obsessed with, and since I would never allow people of that character into my home, I certainly will not allow them on my blog!
People are allowed to have their opinions and they can even not like me or my faith or my political leanings BUT when you get personal that’s when you step over the line.
These two took it to a personal level!
Something is wrong with him thus it sucks to be him. Must be that LA culture that has saturated his brain and character! His gurlfriend is from NY and their culture is no better than LA. Anyway, he got real personal because of his jealousies.
captain trips
on Apr 9th, 2009
@ 9:54 am:
Yeah, ignore him and his ilk and they’ll drift off eventually.
Some one else will be MUCH more entertaining to “spin up” if WE don’t let ourselves “be spun.”
One of the nasty aspects of the internet
Bob A.
on Apr 10th, 2009
@ 7:58 am:
Governor Palin Stresses Need for Strong Missile Defense Capability
Responding to the missile test by North Korea, Governor Sarah Palin today reaffirmed Alaska’s commitment to protecting America from rogue nation missile attacks.
http://www.sarahpac.com/news/news12.aspx
Read the entire article.
Bob A.
stop global warming
on Feb 6th, 2010
@ 7:51 pm:
Do you truly believe that is true? You did a good job sharing your point, but I think you should put some more thought into this debate and perhaps post a reply to the other side of this story.