[ExI] Anti-deterrence weapons/was Re: DARPA seeking Genesis-stylegodware capability

[spike]

....
> 
> --- On Wed, 6/24/09, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> >> ...research whose immediate
> >> purposes are of a military nature remains way better that 
> no research 
> >> at all... Stefano Vaj
> > 
> > Ja.  If THAAD missiles prevent a nuclear war, then research of a 
> > military nature remains better than ALL research at all.
> 
> That depends on the context.  If THAAD and similar tech is 
> widely distributed, yes, it might stop a missile exchange -- 
> presuming no one finds a way to get missiles around this.  
> What would it do against suitcase bombs or other mass 
> casualty weapons? Regards, Dan


All good questions, but I will just deal with one.  THAAD was originally
developed with emerging nucular* powers in mind.  It takes a hell of a lot
of sophistication to make a plutonium implosion bomb that can be carried in
a suitcase, but a uranium bomb is not difficult to make.  A uranium bomb is
far too heavy to be carried by hand.  So every country would go thru a stage
where they have uranium bombs and long range missles, but not plutonium or
hydrogen bombs.  

When it comes to missiles, the technically most difficult part is the
navigation, guidance and control.  The actual rocket hardware is not so
complicated, and can be bought on the international market, but nations
which have developed accurate NG&C algorithms will seldom let those out.
But with GPS, that task has become far easier to do.  So I anticipate that
if the norks launch a missile, the US will temporarily turn off GPS, to see
if it goes awry.  

If they fire one that goes toward Hawaii, I don't know what will happen.  I
assume we would nuke NK, but actually I suspect that the norks won't fire at
Hawaii because they don't know if they can penetrate the THAAD shield.  They
wouldn't want to suffer blanket nukes on a chance they might take out one
state.  So in that scenario, THAAD has saved Hawaii and North Korea.



*It should be spelled nucular.  Easier to say.