Well-known opponent of missile defense system has a better idea

[eridani]

From MIT's Theodore Postol--

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/opinion/12postol.html

Fortunately, there is a “designer” missile defense that would answer President Obama’s hesitations and allay Russia’s fears. And unlike the Bush missile defense, it would actually be able to deal with the threat of ballistic missile attacks from North Korea and Iran if such a threat ever emerged.

This is a proposal I’ve developed and analyzed with a variety of American and Russian experts and the idea itself is simple. The defense system would shoot down Iranian or North Korean long-range missiles as they slowly accelerate from their launching sites. It would take advantage of the fact that long-range missiles built by Iran or North Korea would be large and cumbersome, have long powered flight times and could take off only from well-known launching sites.

The defense would have fast-accelerating interceptors that could home in on and destroy the large, slow and fragile ICBMs. The interceptors would weigh about a ton and could achieve a top speed of five kilometers per second in tens of seconds. They would be carried by stealthy unmanned airborne vehicles that look like B-2 bombers, but are smaller and carry much smaller, though still substantial, payloads. Such vehicles already exist.

Only two of these armed drones, controlled by remote teams of operators, would be needed to patrol within several hundred kilometers of a launching site. At these ranges, it would be possible to shoot down an ICBM, with its nuclear warhead, so that the debris falls on the territory of the country that launched it. Only five drones would be needed to maintain a continuous patrol for extended periods. But the system would have to operate only when satellites and reconnaissance aircraft indicate that an ICBM is being prepared at the launching site.

[lapfog_1]

1. So, what happens when the North Koreans

develop mobile launch based ICBMs? Or they develop better rockets without the slow ascent phase.
Or they shoot down the drones.

Or they sell their rockets and warheads to someone else, say the Pakistanis?

And, of course, the real reason that we wanted the missile defense shield... we really wanted to upset the
balance of power between us, the Russians, the Chinese, and, potentially, other nuclear powers.

[eridani]

2. Both of their regular rocket tests failed

We really don't need to keep pushing the envelope in the arms race. Postol is pointing out a way to avoid that and still deal with NK.

[Selatius]

3. That's possible, but it could also be possible that the communist dictatorship collapses.

The future is an uncertain one at best in the current frame of things.

[TahitiNut]

4. But... but... but ...

... how much taxpayer money could be funneled to the MIC for such a cheap approach?? :dunce: