Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
Did Patriot missile's take down Scuds during Guld War One, or was that all just a well planned hoax? If they did doesn't that show that upper atmoshphere missiles can be shot down, and if so, don't you think we can improve upon that technology?
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1. True
2. True, but much, much harder if for no other reason than the difficulty of maintaining accuracy over the much greater distances iinvolved.
3. Of course the technology can be improved. I don't doubt that, with sufficient resources, a system can be developed to shoot down a single (maybe even a handful of) ballistic missles. Although it isn't your principle concern now, I do doubt the feasibility of the Reagan-era star wars program--i.e. a missile "shield" capable of shooting down hundreds or thousands of ballisitc missiles launched nearly simultaneously.
I only noted the article in relation to the question of why Rumsfeld and Cheney aren't making hay about it--suggesting that perhaps the results were not as overwhelming positive as "successful 7 out of 8" would imply.
