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2017-07-11 -Land of the Free

US successfully tests THAAD system under combat conditions 14 out of 14 missiles shot down

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Posted by DarthVader 2017-07-11 09:21|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 But - always remember what lefties whine: It can't work, it's destabilizing, it's too expensive, blah, blah, blah...

Posted by M. Murcek 2017-07-11 10:06|| 2017-07-11 10:06|| Front Page Top

#2 I remember a long discussion back about 2000 on a mailing list. It started out in Space 4X Games and Planetary Genocidal Bombardment and segueing into what effect the first Soviet ABM systems had on the nuclear deterrence arsenals of England and France.(His daytime job had been in the Think-Tank business...)
The short answer is that they ceased being Doomsday Weapons and became Symbols of National Prestige. ABMs make ICBMs 'iffy' enough that the expectation is that they will hurt the enemy and not kill them... The US/USSR could just smother their defense in MIRVs. England/France went from being able to individual target all of the major population centers west of the Urals to maybe having enough throw weight to obliterate the Greater Moscow Urban Area.

Posted by magpie 2017-07-11 10:33|| 2017-07-11 10:33|| Front Page Top

#3 And lefties always remind that since it can't stop a smuggled in nuke, why even bother?

Posted by M. Murcek 2017-07-11 16:11|| 2017-07-11 16:11|| Front Page Top

#4 Back in the day, when SDI was a big deal, there was one of those "40,000 scientists say it can't work and we should stop it," things.
Just idling through it, I noted one signatory worked for Woods Hole Oceanagraphic Institute. Though by nature and training an Infantryman, I'd had, for my sins, a year in Air Defense, the old Nike Herc. So I knew something about the issue, having been exposed to early work on the Nike Zeus, Nike X, and Sprint systems.
I wondered why my view counted for less than that of some guy who pestered fish for a living.

Posted by Richard Aubrey 2017-07-11 19:36|| 2017-07-11 19:36|| Front Page Top

One of the intercepts today.

Posted by 3dc 2017-07-11 20:01|| 2017-07-11 20:01|| Front Page Top

#6 God bless you Mr. Aubrey for your service.

My church members attend an annual retreat at a retired Nike base near Saint Louis that is now a park. I explain to the youth of the congregation that they are bivouacking where 40 years ago soldiers their age were prepared to defend the nation by firing nuclear missiles with a 100 mile range at Soviet bombers.

From Saint Louis.

Over the years, not one of them actually understood what I told them.

Posted by rammer 2017-07-11 22:48|| 2017-07-11 22:48|| Front Page Top

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