Posted on 09/28/2007 1:27:39 AM PDT by familyop
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Interceptor missiles deployed in Poland as part of a US missile defense shield would be fast enough to target Russian intercontinental missiles, contrary to US assurances, a US researcher said Thursday.
Ted Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a long time critic of the US missile defense system, said the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is understating the speed of the interceptor and overstating the speed of Russian long range missiles.
MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said Postol had no access to missile test data and his assertions were "totally false."
The United States is negotiating to station 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a high powered targeting radar in the Czech Republic to counter what it says is a growing missile threat from Iran.
Russia has objected vehemently to the plan on grounds that the European site could be used against its missiles, despite repeated denials from Washington.
Postol said the Americans "were probably concerned the Europeans wouldn't accept (the plan) so they came up with the false argument that the interceptors won't be fast enough to engage Russians' ICBMs."
He argued that the interceptor missiles would have to be faster than acknowledged by the Missile Defense Agency to be effective against missiles from Iran.
"The MDA claims the interceptors have a rather slow burnout speed, because you have to have a low burnout speed in order to not overtake Russian ICBMs," he said at a press conference.
"They claim a 6.3 kilometers per second speed. At this speed, the interceptor wouldn't be able to engage an ICBM from Russia," he said.
"But in fact, the burnout speed of this interceptor is closer to nine kilometers per second, which tends to fit to claims of the MDA that the system can protect from an Iran attack," he said.
"If the speed is inferior, then they can't defend places that they said they could defend earlier," he said.
Lehner insisted, however, that the US interceptors are not fast enough to catch a Russian ICBM.
"These missiles are more like six kilometers per second or a little more and it is certainly not sufficient to intercept a Russian missile, even coming out of a western part of Russia," he said.
Is this Treason? What exactly do you have to do to qualify?
From MIT... I wouldn't expect less.
Truth comes up.
Is this Treason? What exactly do you have to do to qualify?==
DO you think Russia’s Putin doesn’t know that? He knows it from start. That is why he is so against it.
What those professors did is just told truth to the western public and blew up the propaganda plot.
So the question is why the truth telling is the “treason”?
It sounds like the US is offering the Russians a fig leaf to hide their inadequacies. By claiming the Russian missiles are still invulnerable, we can head off the political call for a new round of ICBM development by the Russians. The Russians don’t want to spend this kind of money, so they are happy to accept the falsehood.
It stands to reason that any interceptor fast enough to catch an Iranian missile would be fast enough to catch a Russian missile.
It’s gross obstruction and obfuscation from an anti-establishment 60’s child who simply can’t stand to see any form of US weapons proliferation. He knows he’s helping the Russian’s case.
The Israelis were able to strike Syria a couple of weeks ago unscathed. Apparently, the big bucks Russian air defense system that Syria had recently purchased from the Russians didn't so much as give a hint that the Israelis were coming. With all the closet cleaning the Russians have been doing lately, selling arms and air defense to all comers, I'd tend to think the Russians need quite a few fig leaves to hide their inadequacies......
“DO you think Russia’s Putin doesn’t know that? He knows it from start. That is why he is so against it.”
Putin is against the USA spending money on this plan because it wouldnt work? Thats faulty logic?
“What those professors did is just told truth to the western public and blew up the propaganda plot.”
In other words these guys did something to damage the national security of America. Thats treason.
“So the question is why the truth telling is the “treason”?”
No the real question is when will they be jailed. Telling the truth isn’t a get out of jail free card. Do you say yes if your wife asks if her dress makes her look fat? Telling the truth by giving out your credit card number doesn’t help you.
And giving away national security information is not a good thing. Regardless of whether they are correct it hurts us.
How ironic that Postol has, for years, critized US missile defense because “it won’t work.” Now he’s criticizing US missile defense because “It works too well.”
A reasonable person might conclude that professor Postol is simply biased, No?
TC
Needless to say, there is egg all over the faces of the lefty apologists for Bush's appeasement policy here...with the Russian Generals saying they are keeping their SS-18s until at least 2017 (when they are apparently needing to be retired due to unreliability)
Yes.
Postol is always trying to say things that harm our ability to deploy a missile defense, even if he has to contradict himself.
Besides, isn’t this system designed to hit missiles that are basically overhead or close by? They can’t travel thousands of miles to hit a target moving away from them, right? Wouldn’t Russian ICBMs be launched toward the US on a path that wouldn’t take them close to these sites?
Let’s say this guy is correct. Russia could simply saturate the site with thousands of missiles. Then when there are no interceptor missiles left they are free to launch their ICBMs all they want. The fact is there is no way to defend against a massive ICBM arsenal, short of a star trek-type force field.
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