Posted on 05/28/2006 5:04:43 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Pentagon pressing for new rapid-strike weapon: report
19 minutes ago
The Pentagon is seeking congressional approval for development of a new weapon able to strike distant targets an hour after they are detected, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The International Herald Tribune said the weapon would be a non-nuclear version of the submarine-launched Trident-2 missile and be part of a president's arsenal when considering a pre-emptive attack.
The report quoted military officials as saying it could be used to hit terrorist camps, enemy missile sites, suspected caches of weapons of mass destruction and other urgent threats.
General James Cartwright, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, said the system would allow U.S. forces to attack targets conventionally and precisely and "limit the collateral damage."
The Pentagon would like the system available in two years, the report said.
But the program has run into resistance from lawmakers concerned it could increase the risk of an accidental nuclear war. Under the Pentagon plan, both non-nuclear and nuclear-tipped variants of the Trident-2 missile would be loaded on the same submarines.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The military is also working on a sub-orbital rocket that could deliver ordnance to any spot on Earth in 1 hour or less. They are hoping to have it by 2020.
kill'em already!!!
The Soviets had a system that could do this back in the 1970's. Of course their delivery system carried a multimegaton thermonuclear warhead.
whoo hoo "rapid-strike" I like the sound of that. :)
This trident modification would fill the gap until the new weapon system is ready.
As compared to just sitting and talking about what we should do for months while taking more hits?
Non-Nuclear for more than coastal defense ?
Sounds good to me.Of course the dims don't like it.Sen.Jack Reed(D)RI,"It would be hard to tell if a missle coming out of a Trident submarine is conventional or nuclear."If it were up to the dims we wouldn't get this missle,but then again if it were up to the dims we probably wouldn't have any subs either.
Yeah, but then we'd have to pay the missile the "Prevailing Wage" for other forms of transportation. /sarc
I thought we could do that same kind of thing now with cruise missiles. Have they become vulnerable to some new missile defense technology the Chinese and Russians have cooked up?
Ballistic missiles can hit theirs in an hour or so, sometimes much less depending on where they are launched from.
L
It's an interesting idea, but like the article says, launching ballistic missiles from subs can cause the wrong people to overreact.
In one of my collection of Tom Clancy-style paperback shoot-em-ups there's reference to a fictional Arsenal Ship that is basically like a supertanker in size and shape. It holds several thousand vertical launch tubes containing a broad mix of ballistic and cruise missiles, bristles with air defense missiles and guns, and has Aegis fire control. If something like that existed, think of the anxiety it would cause some third world tyrant to have a few of those ships cruising around offshore while he's banging his saber on the podium and getting the peasants riled up against The Great Satan. Nationalize OUR companies will you? Hold OUR citizens hostage will you? Etc.
> But the program has run into resistance from lawmakers
> concerned it could increase the risk of an accidental
> nuclear war.
Makes more sense as:
But the program has run into resistance from Democrats
concerned it could increase the risk of victory.
> ... but like the article says, launching ballistic
> missiles from subs can cause the wrong people to overreact.
So can daisy cutters and MOABs, whose plumes look like
nuclear mushroom clouds, but we have them, and use them.
Obviously, the NNSLBM needs to be launched with due
consideration for who might detect it and how they
might respond.
I'd be more interested in the cost-effectiveness:
yield, CEP, penetration, etc. What are the scenarios
where this is THE tool you want at hand? Are all of
those quick-strike missions, or does the NNSLBM do
something else no other weapon can?
Incoming!
But seriously....it sounds fabulous!!!
Well this is great but can we eliminate the threat of primative IED's first?
It's wonderful we can place a laser beam on a fly's anus from outer space but could we improve our ability to figure out what 64' Dodge Dart has the bomb in it first?
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