WHERE'S PAUL MARTIN WHEN WE NEED HIM?:

Missile Defense Program Moves Forward (Steven Donald Smith, Jan 12, 2006, American Forces Press Service)

The Missile Defense Agency continues to move forward in its efforts to protect the nation against a ballistic missile attack. The eighth ground-based interceptor missile was lowered into its underground silo at Fort Greely, Alaska, Dec. 18, 2005. [...]

"The interceptors are part of an integrated system of ground, sea and space-based sensors, ground and sea-based radars and an advanced command and control, battle management and communication system designed to detect and track a hostile ballistic missile, then launch and guide an interceptor to destroy the target warhead before it can reach its intended target in any of our 50 states," MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said. [...]

An airborne laser is also being developed and tested. The ABL weapons system is a chemical oxygen iodine laser fitted to a heavily modified Boeing 747. The laser will destroy a missile by heating its metal skin until it cracks, causing the boosting missile to fail, according to the missile agency's Web site.

The anti-ballistic missiles in Alaska and California use "hit-to-kill" technology: They destroy incoming enemy missiles by physically colliding with them. This task often has been described as hitting a bullet with a bullet.

Didn't Canada just yesterday promise to protect us from terrors like this?

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 12, 2006 7:38 AM