Obama Backs Unproven Missile Defense for Uncertain Threat

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-19/obama-backs-unproven-missile-defense-for-uncertain-threat.html



U.S. soldiers work on a Patriot missile system at a Turkish military base in Gaziantep on February 5, 2013.

Obama Backs Unproven Missile Defense for Uncertain Threat
By Gopal Ratnam & Tony Capaccio - 2013-03-19T18:25:42Z

The Obama administration’s decision to shift $1 billion to a missile-defense system in the U.S. is raising questions about the still-unproven missile shield’s effectiveness and the threats posed by North Korea and Iran.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said March 15 that the Pentagon would add 14 land-based interceptors in Alaska in response to threats from North Korea. To pay for that move and develop an advanced warhead, about $1 billion would be shifted from efforts to develop a missile shield in Poland and Romania.

The money would go toward expanding the current arsenal of 30 interceptors the Pentagon has fielded as part of its Ground- Based Midcourse Defense system, which is designed to shoot down long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. The system’s poor test record and history of technical malfunctions have clouded whether it can reliably stop long-range missiles such as the ones that North Korea and Iran are suspected of developing.

At best, the announcement may be a symbolic one to reassure U.S. allies South Korea and Japan that President Barack Obama takes saber-rattling by North Korea seriously, as well as to win some Republican support at home, said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a San Francisco-based security research policy group.



unhappycamper comment: That one billion dollars is for fourteen, count 'em, 14 Standard missiles. Too bad about your 'entitlements'.