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

[Stefano Vaj]

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 3:56 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> 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.

I agree with Spike, but there are a lot of less US-centric arguments
converging in the same direction.

For instance, THAAD is a more interesting engineering fact than simply
accumulating nukes in the hopes of saturating the offensive
capabilities of the striked country (or, for runners-up like NK, in
the hope that the chance that the odd one may survive be sufficently
deterrent against such a strike).

Additionally, the every existence of such a system forces the other
countries either to develop similar systems, or study ways to
circumvent it, or to establish equivalent or redundant solutions
ensuring their independence and military viability.

See for instance the Galileo system. If the US had opened to everybody
military-grade GPS and delivered it to an independent org, probably we
would not have such a project, the dividends of which are huge for
European countries, irrespective of the ultimate motives behind the
project.

So, not all is bad what comes from such int'l balance of powers...

--
Stefano Vaj