Word: lasered
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...that the Poker Alliance has set up shop at CPAC. But it was striking to see in speech after speech many of the wedge issues that so preoccupied the most recent GOP majority - Terry Schiavo, abortion, stem cells, gays, family values, religion in government - sublimated to the GOP's laser-like focus on the economy and to see the CPAC's attempts, as with GOProud, to widen their tent...
...just that cramming a powerful laser into an airplane doesn't work very well. The goal is to destroy enemy missiles above the clouds - at more than 40,000 feet - within two minutes of launch, from within 250 miles (400 km). That would require deploying several such planes near enemy launchpads and having at least one fly continuously until the missiles are fired or the crisis eases...
Gates wasn't impressed by the scheme. "After more than a decade of research and development, we have yet to achieve a laser with enough power to knock down a missile ... more than 50 miles from the launchpad - thus requiring these huge planes to loiter deep in enemy airspace to have a feasible shot at a direct hit," he noted after he axed the program. "Moreover, the 10 to 20 aircraft needed would cost about $1.5 billion each, plus tens of millions of dollars annually - each - for maintenance and operations," he added. "The program and operating concept were fatally flawed...
...according to the antimissileers. Flying lasers are the dream of Star Wars boosters, theoretically combining the speed of light with multiple shots from a single platform. Such lasers play into America's can-do hubris, compounded by the frisson of excitement generated by theoretical invulnerability they provide. "The airborne laser is initially proven and should continue to be developed, tested and even deployed if necessary," Riki Ellison, a former NFL linebacker who now heads the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said shortly after the shootdown. "The ability of our military to use the airborne laser ... to engage and destroy multiple Iranian...
...kill the program, highlights the difficulty of developing smart missile defenses. The challenge is especially difficult when the program generates an almost religious fervor among its advocates, especially given its tie to Ronald Reagan. In 1983, he launched the Strategic Defense Initiative, which ultimately gave birth to the airborne laser, expressing his desire to render nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete." The nuke-laden enemy Reagan was focused on - the Soviet Union - wound up being impotent and obsolete. Nuclear weapons, alas, are still alive and well...