Posted on 08/16/2009 7:39:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Never has Ronald Reagan's dream of layered missile defensesStar Wars, for shortbeen as politically out of favor as in the Age of Obama. Nor as close, at least technologically, to becoming realized.
The latest encouraging news came Thursday courtesy of the Misssile Defense Agency. The Airborne Laser prototype aircraft this week found, tracked, engaged and simulated an intercept with a missile seconds after liftoff. It was the first time the Agency used an "instrumented" missile to confirm the laser works as expected. Next up this fall will be the first live attempt to bring down a ballistic missile, but this test confirms how far along this innovative effort has come.
Along with space-based weapons, the Airborne Laser is the next defense frontier. The modified Boeing 747 is supposed to send an intense beam of light over hundreds of miles to destroy missiles in the "boost phase," before they can release decoys and at a point in their trajectory when they would fall back down on enemy territory. It's a pioneering use of directed energy in defense. The laser complements the sea- and ground-based missile defenses that keep proving themselves in tests.
Yet the Obama Administration isn't buying it. Funding for missile defense was cut in the 2010 budget by some 15%$1.2 billion to $1.6 billion, depending on how you calculate it. The number of ground-based interceptors was reduced. The Missile Defense Agency's budget for the Airborne Laser is to be slashed in half, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pulled the plug on buying a second plane. The Pentagon says the program will have three tries to hit a live missile, or be killed altogether.
As the Administration keeps defense spending growth flat, while breaking the bank on its domestic priorities, Secretary Gates has to make hard choices.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
BTTT
“intercept with a missile seconds after liftoff. It was the first time the Agency used an “instrumented” missile to confirm the laser works as expected.”
I wonder if the N Korean missile launch that “malfunctioned on liftoff” in 2006 was really the first time the laser was used?
“Given past experience with the Clinton administration, we will soon see the technological secrets of the ABL delivered to Red China, Cuba, or maybe Iran.”
and they had not totally surrounded themselves with anti-American communists.... bill ayers is still briefing the obmanation on destroying America. They spent over 10 years rubbing arms and fleecing and stealing from the American people in the Annenberg Project (a million dollar grant that produced NOTHING) I would bet the farm on it.
and it was chump change when compared to the social spending feeding frenzy in porkulus. “Defend or enslave, defend or enslave, whatever shall we do with the population?” the Speaker said.
Why spend on this when we can buy clunkers? /s
Hm, what about the crazy accounting schemes known as: social security, medicare, and medicaid?
You forgot Russia. Obama may sell it to any of them, or probably all of them
Actually, it was around $140 million and change, and, although it produced nothing of benefit to public education, all that money went somewhere, like the pockets of friends, for instance.
It works, therefore we must not deploy it, we can’t have an unfair advantage from the bad guys.
Obama is a trojan horse
Well a horses ass at least
Heyup.
I can’t decide if he is a complete idiot or if he is a Machiavellian mastermind.
I fear he may be the last President of the United States of America
Things are spinning out of control at an exponential speed arent they?
Yes for us lay people faster and faster
But.. But..
I thought Barama was the defender of the reg’lar guy /s
mark
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