Word: radar
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...armed forces have been engaged in the drug war since 1981, when Congress revised the 100-year-old posse comitatus act that prohibited the military from involvement in domestic law enforcement. With the reins loosened, the Department of Defense began providing the Drug Enforcement Administration and other organizations with radar surveillance, communications hardware and help in planning raids on traffickers. What, then, makes the new directive significant? ''The greatest impact may be one of emphasis,'' said Bush Aide Kevin Cummings. ''We now have a forthright identification of the problem as a national-security concern.'' That could encourage local military commanders...
...from space. Warheads that survive the boost and midcourse onslaughts hurtle toward earth in a ''terminal'' phase, the last 125 miles and the final two minutes of their mission. Back in the atmosphere, space-related problems no longer deter the defender. An RV can be detected by standard imaging radar and shot down, preferably with smart rocks. But little time remains once the RVs are spotted, which means a defense runs the risk of being overwhelmed. In addition, the Soviets could blind radar with nuclear bursts in the sky and skew targeting by outfitting their RVs with stubby wings that...
Today most people think that Doppler radar wind-shear-detection systems have been installed in every airport. In fact, only 16 are installed and working. Some $350 million worth of parts for Doppler wind-shear-warning radar (promised after a horrible 1985 crash in Dallas) moldered away when truckloads of equipment went to dusty warehouses instead of to the airports most in need. Other systems are installed but haven't been switched on. Seven of the remaining 47 scheduled for production haven't even been delivered...
...years since the Dallas crash, other wind-shear accidents have cost passenger lives. Two unsolved crashes in Pennsylvania and North Carolina have been tentatively attributed to wind shear that might have been avoided with Doppler radar. After a USAir flight crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina, in July 1994, the NTSB said the delay in installing the radar had cost the lives of 37 onboard. Charlotte was supposed to get the radar system in early 1993. As an airport in the South (where wind shear is particularly common), it was No. 5 on the FAA list. But the inevitable delays...
Some of the stories, Weintrob recalled, were too outrageous to believe at first. Crews on a jet complained about a broken weather radar system 31 times before it was fixed; when a Boston flight had a stuck landing gear, the plane was diverted to the Washington area, but on the way, the landing gear started working again, so the crew continued to fly without taking the plane in to be serviced; mechanics used duct tape to patch planes; a mechanic wielded a hammer and chisel to fix a sensitive engine part, and later that engine had to be shut down...