Just Like the One Trump Envisions
“On 23 March 1983, [then President Ronald] Reagan announced
SDI [Strategic Defensive Initiative] in a nationally televised speech, stating ‘I
call upon the scientific community who gave us nuclear weapons to turn their
great talents to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of
rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.’
“In 1984, the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization
(SDIO) was established to oversee the program, which was headed by Lt.
General James Alan Abrahamson USAF, a past
Director of the NASA Space Shuttle program… In addition to the
ideas presented by the original Heritage group, a number of other concepts were
also considered. Notable among these were particle-beam weapons, updated versions
of nuclear shaped charges, and various plasma
weapons. Additionally, the SDIO invested in computer systems, component
miniaturization, and sensors.” Wikipedia. The notion of particle beams –
reminiscent of science fictional ray guns – quickly picked up the nickname
“Star Wars Defense” after the popular series of movies.
“Yet over the next three-and-a-half decades, the federal
government sank more than $239 billion (in 2016 dollars) into making some
version of this Cold War daydream into reality, without much success.” Mother
Jones, 1/27/17. Over the years, advancements in technology generated
all sort of prototypes – many still highly confidential. As of today, the
United States has nothing like that particle beam/laser missile defense system.
Meanwhile, the Russians claim to have developed, soon to be
fully deployed, a missile capable of flying 20 times faster than the speed of
sound, unmatched by any other missile, one that can automatically evade any
current and expected technology that could be used to shoot it down. It’s
called the Avangard. American sensors detected a ship-based launch of a
Russian missile that could achieve Mach 8 (8 times the speed of sound, 2 miles
a second, 6138 mph) on December 10th. North Korea suggested that they too were
developing such an invincible hypersonic missile.
On December 26th, Vladimir Putin watched a Russian
land-based missile launch that carried the Avangard into the stratosphere where
it was released into a hypersonic glide that took an elusive path toward its
target. A day later, Putin extolled the virtues of that weapon, pledging widely
to deploy that system in 2019. He stated that Russia developed the Avangard
(and is working on other comparable weapons) because of America’s 2002
withdrawal from the U.S./Russian Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. "This is a
great success and a big victory. This is a wonderful, excellent gift for the
country for the New Year," he said.
Putin added that Trump’s recent threat
to pull out of the treaty on medium-range missiles could lead to a new arms
race. Alarmed but still skeptical, the American military leadership is still
not convinced that Putin’s missile system is ready for full deployment. But
they are not sure it isn’t either.
Without the slightest degree of expertise but addicted to
the habit of doubling down to show how tough he is, without once mentioning
Russia or North Korea, Trump “called Thursday [1/17] for dramatically
broadening U.S. defenses against missile attacks, outlining a costly and
scientifically unproven plan for developing lasers and space sensors to defend
all of U.S. territory from ballistic missile threats… ‘Our strategy is grounded
in one overriding objective: to detect and destroy every type of missile attack
against any American target, whether before or after launch,’ Trump said at the
Pentagon as the administration released its long-awaited missile defense
strategy.
“Trump’s expansive vision of an impenetrable U.S. missile
shield — one first envisaged by President Reagan 35 years ago — goes well
beyond the Pentagon’s technical and scientific capacity, the reality that
grounded most of Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ initiative.
“The plan also does not reflect the administration’s
near-term goals, which remain focused on developing the capability to knock out
limited missile strikes by Iran or North Korea and, at least theoretically, new
short- and medium-range weapons being developed by China and Russia that could
threaten Europe and Asia.
“But Trump used the speech to press his ‘America first’
agenda, fitting his call for expanded missile defense in with broadsides on
Democrats in Congress for blocking his proposed border wall and on U.S. allies
for failing to pay enough for their own defense.
“When Trump attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San
Francisco) for opposing the border wall and said Democrats had been ‘hijacked’
by the ‘fringe’ and ‘radical left,’ the audience of uniformed military officers
and Defense Department officials sat silent.
“Democrats in Congress, even some who have backed the
development of the current limited U.S. missile defense system, questioned
Trump’s vision of a vast shield over the nation… ‘An effective missile defense
system can serve as a deterrent to conflict, protect our forward-deployed
forces and the homeland, and create an opening for diplomacy,’ said Sen. Jack
Reed (D-R.I.), a member of the Armed Services Committee. ‘But it’s not a magic
bulletproof shield, and it comes with a considerable price tag.’
“Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear weapons expert at Ploughshares
Fund, a Washington-based anti-nuclear-proliferation organization, called the
Trump plan ‘a grab bag of contractor proposals to build space weapons we don’t
need, don’t work and can’t afford.’... The 81-page Missile Defense Review,
released by the Pentagon as Trump began speaking, cites Russian and Chinese
medium-range missiles as possible targets of anti-missile defenses.
“That’s a departure from previous administrations, which
insisted the U.S. system was aimed at so-called rogue states and at
intercepting accidental launches but was too small to be of concern to major
powers with intercontinental missiles and large nuclear arsenals.
“Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the U.S. was
considering measures for the first time to guard against Russian and Chinese
medium-range missiles, including hypersonic weapons that travel far faster than
sound and could threaten U.S. forces abroad and allies in Europe and Asia… China
and Russia ‘are expanding their missile arsenals … and [integrating] these more
effectively into war planning,’ Shanahan said in remarks before Trump spoke,
adding that Iran and North Korea’s missiles ‘remain a significant concern.’”
Los Angeles Times, January 18th.
Meanwhile, Trump terminated the medium-range nuclear missile
treaty with Russia. “Russia and the United States already have stockpiles of
hundreds of nuclear-armed missiles capable of reaching each other’s territory,
a vestige of Cold War hostilities. But Putin’s annual state of the nation
address to both houses of parliament and his government ministries was a
warning that a nuclear-armed standoff between the two countries appears in
danger of returning.
“It came less than a month after President Trump said the
United States was withdrawing from the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty,
a landmark Cold War agreement that lessened tensions between Moscow and
Washington but which the U.S now says Moscow is violating.” Los Angeles Times,
February 21st. Even if the Russian are violating a treaty, is abrogating it the
solution? How about enforcing it?
“Russian state television has listed U.S. military
facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, and said
that a hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in
less than five minutes.. The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential
retreat in Camp David, Maryland.
“The report, unusual even by the sometimes bellicose
standards of Russian state TV, was broadcast on Sunday evening [2/24], days
after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a ‘Cuban
Missile’-style crisis if the United States wanted one… With tensions rising
over Russian fears that the United States might deploy intermediate-range
nuclear missiles in Europe as a Cold War-era arms-control treaty unravels,
Putin has said Russia would be forced to respond by placing hypersonic nuclear
missiles on submarines near U.S. waters.
“The United States says it has no immediate plans to deploy
such missiles in Europe and has dismissed Putin's warnings as disingenuous
propaganda. It does not currently have ground-based intermediate-range nuclear
missiles that it could place in Europe.” Thomason-Reuters, February 25th. Feeling all warm and fuzzy inside? How warm?
Let’s assume we can finally build a real Star Wars defense
system, aside from the exorbitant cost, the process will take years. What
exactly do we do in the meantime? And what about those other, less powerful
systems that are… everywhere? And exactly whom do we fear more? Vladimir Putin
or Donald Trump?
I’m Peter
Dekom, and do the words “Donald Trump, Commander in Chief” sound the least bit
reassuring?
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