Re: eeyore and tigger

From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Jun 14 2000 - 09:47:37 MDT


Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net> Wrote:

>Reentry vehicles do not change much with time,

Cruse Missiles. Stealth technology. Cheap balloon decoys. Armored warheads.
Warheads in orbit. Electro Magnetic Pulse Bombs. Suitcase Nukes. And most
important of all, quantity.

>I suggest that these ABM systems cannot be easily defeated by
>massive redundancy [ever more warheads] because the laser systems can
>also be multiplied arbitrarily.

No, not arbitrarily. You've already admitted that defense is much more expensive than
offence so just building more defense is simply not going to work unless your resources
are infinite. They're not.

>>Me:
>>if I just buy some paint at Home Depot and paint my warhead white you'll have to
>>increase the power of your LASER about a hundred times.

>Awww, c'mon John, humor me just a little. Do you really believe that
>those who dream up these systems have not anticipated this?

I'm sure that somebody involved in the project had taken Physics in High School so the
idea must have been tossed around. However they concluded, quite correctly, that it had
nothing to do with the main function of the system, to provide employment for themselves
and their friends. I mean, if the system is ever actually needed nobody expects to be held
accountable afterward when it fails to work as promised.

                     John K Clark jonkc@att.net



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