Word: programer
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...Those two mean the world to me,” Weiss said. “They’re two of the most respected people I’ve ever coached as far as how people view them, and they’ve done so much for our program...The next couple of weeks are going to be real exciting. I want the best [for them] because they deserve the best...
...killed plans last year to buy a fleet of lasered 747s. However, Gates has continued R&D, and that gives missile-defense backers a flickering flame of hope. There's no doubt the companies involved - and their supporters in Congress - will use the shootdown to try to resurrect the program. After all, the heart of the program isn't a lumbering fleet of airliners but the chemical-oxygen-iodine lasers within...
Also jobs. "Today's successful test should be a wake-up call to the Administration, and I'm again calling on the President to restore full funding to the program immediately," GOP Congressman Todd Tiahrt of Kansas said within hours of the test. Many of his constituents work on the laser plane at Boeing's Wichita plant, where Tiahrt too was employed for 14 years. "We know the threat from rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea is very real, and we should be doing everything possible to counter this threat...
...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...
Such blind faith, even in the face of the evidence that led Gates to 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...