Word: interceptor
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Last week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that a system with 250 land-based interceptors, backed by many congressional Republicans, would cost $60 billion--more than double the $25.6 billion the Pentagon projected for a 100-interceptor system. The U.S. space shield's satellites would detect the launch of an enemy missile and cue ground-based radars to find it. Data on its path would be downloaded into the interceptors before their launch from mainland Alaska bases, with updates radioed to them in flight. Four interceptors, fired two at a time, would be dedicated to each incoming warhead...
...first test, over the Pacific last October, blasted a fake warhead to smithereens. But the second, in January, missed by about 150 yards when a "few molecules" of water froze inside a cooling pipe 0.0035 in. in diameter--the width of a human hair--and shut down the interceptor's heat-seeking sensors. A third test is set for late June. Officials say a 1-for-3 record will justify construction of the missiles. Previously the Pentagon had said it was aiming...
...when 45% of the proposed hardware has been shown to work. In fact, there is concern that the new, more powerful booster--which will shake the kill vehicle 10 times as hard as the test booster now being used--could damage its own optics or electronics and render "the interceptor impotent," the CBO said last week. Critics say foes could overwhelm the system with cheap decoys. They note that it will do nothing to keep terrorists from smuggling a weapon into the U.S. Clinton has said he will decide by fall whether or not to build such a system, based...
...Despite deep reservations in Washington over everything from the system's cost (up to $60 billion on top of $60 billion already spent) to its viability (tests of the system's prototype interceptor missiles have been decidedly hit-and-miss) and its purpose (defense analysts believe the "rogue states" the system is supposedly designed for are likely to prefer terrorist methods over missiles to attack the U.S.), national missile defense has become an enduring favorite of both the White House and Capitol Hill. But building the system would violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, and Moscow has not only refused...
...Despite the skepticism of many defense analysts, it has become conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill that the U.S. needs a system of interceptor missiles, deployed in Alaska, that will be able to shoot down any incoming missiles from North Korea or other "rogue" states. Skeptics point out that despite $60 billion of investment in Reagan's "Star Wars" program and a further $10 billion envisaged by the Clinton administration, an even relatively fail-safe system of interceptor missiles remains a pipe dream. Still, that hasn't deterred either Congress or the White House from championing the program...