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Missile Defence

09:46 / 07.03.02

Can anyone tell me or link me to what's going on with the US National Missile Defence thing? I have an idea it got put on hold after 9-11 but welcome help here...

(Edited so the subject line makes sense.)

[ 07-03-2002: Message edited by: Dread Pirate Crunchy ]

Jack The Bodiless

13:26 / 07.03.02

On a back burner, I believe - at least as far as US spending is concerned - but still going ahead. They've been trying to use UK bases for a while. Can't really see the Smiler saying no...

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

01:21 / 08.03.02

It's still going ahead, but no longer gets a lot of coverage, since we now don't cover what the military does unless it has to do with blowing people up. The rest would be "giving away secrets". This week, a Congressional inquiry into corporate fraud discovered that one of the sensors being used in the tests had its results altered to make it look like the sensor had been successful, when it had failed according to an artcile in the Sunday NYTimes.

I would imagine that it is a nice place to put a bunch of money that is being diverted to other matters, as it was during the 80's. The Bushies don't know any new tricks, just twists on the old ones.

06:51 / 08.03.02

'Tis a bit of a new trick though - militarisation of space and all that.

16:05 / 08.03.02

Oh, I thought this was about that old Atari video game.

Nevermind.

Zoom.

07:12 / 11.03.02

I get the impression that's pretty much the way they see it, Zoom.

Now *that's* a worrying thought... Bush and Rumsfeld running the whole thing off an Xbox and taking a coast each.

22:25 / 14.03.02

For quite a good overview of the subject try www.tmcm.com (Too Much Coffee Man) number 151. I'm sorry but I don't know how to do links...Incidentally the rest of TMCM is well worth checking out if you have never seen it before.

19:50 / 16.03.02

The Pentagon is claiming aSuccessful Missle Test but is this just another set up? The fact that the others were staged seems to have gotten very little press coverage...

quote:It was the sixth test of a ground-based missile defense prototype and the fourth successful destruction of the dummy warhead.

Would this include the previous set up tests? I can't help but feel that the chances of North Korea trying to nuke the US are pretty slim. Wouldn't the Sept. plane crashes show the pointlessness of a missle system?

The Damned Yankee

04:43 / 17.03.02

I heard that the test was a bust.

I just wish I had a source beyond just Arianna Huffington.

01:42 / 31.01.04

Bush is asking for an extra $1.54 billion for missle defense

The Bush administration is seeking a big increase in spending for missile defense next year, setting the program on course to have a bare-bones system in place by the end of this year and up to 30 interceptors on land and at sea by the end of 2005.

The money is part of a proposed $401.7 billion Pentagon budget that doesn't include money for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials last year went back to Congress for $87 billion beyond their budget to fund those missions, and documents obtained by The Associated Press show they expect to have to ask for money beyond this new budget as well. The Pentagon budget represents 17.8 percent of the federal budget, compared with 15.3 percent in fiscal year 2000, according to other documents obtained by The AP.

That's 3.6 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 2.9 percent in 2000.

...$401.7 billion, not including Iraq and Afghanistan operations?