The latest Gaza war is only a few days old, but already one conclusion can be drawn: missile defense works. This is only the latest vindication for the vision of Ronald Reagan who is emerging as a consensus pick for one of the all-time great U.S. presidents.
For it was Ronald Reagan who made missile defense a major priority for the U.S. and our allies. His 1983 speech on the subject was widely derided as “Star Wars” because he envisioned that some missile would be intercepted in space. For years critics claimed that it was impossible to intercept missiles in flight, or that at the very least it would be prohibitively expensive to do so. But now the U.S. West Coast is actually protected by a limited ballistic-missile defense system based primarily around satellites, sea-based Aegis and X-band radars, and Standard Missile-3 interceptors. We don’t know how the system would work in combat but it has been vindicated in testing.
The U.S. has also cooperated with numerous allies to develop more tactical missiles defenses designed to stop rockets, not in their boost phase, but just before they hit. One of those projects is the Iron Dome system that Israel launched after the 2006 war in Lebanon, during which Hezbollah bombarded northern Israel with thousands of rockets. Today Iron Dome, which is still officially listed as experimental, is operational–and it is blunting Hamas’s missile-offensive against Israel.
According to the Israeli Embassy in Washington: “In the last 4 days: 544 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel + 302 Iron Dome interceptions = 846 rockets fired at us.” The fact that only 302 of 846 rockets were intercepted (36 percent) might indicate that Iron Dome is ineffective. But in fact it is expressly designed to ignore rockets headed for uninhabited areas. Israeli officials say that 90 percent of the attempted interceptions have worked, thus providing critical protection for civilian areas including Tel Aviv, where an Iron Dome battery has just been moved.
Somewhere, wherever he is now, the Gipper must be smiling.
We must never forget Edward Teller, the brilliant physicist and strategist who convinced Reagan that it absolutely was possible. I worked for Rockwell International in 1982 and our scientists were already well on their way towards developing a viable system. Reagan knew this, hence knew what he was talking about & as usual the looney left did not have a clue. They now admit the system works but only in a laughable attempt to give, are you ready for this…….wait for it…….Barack Obama credit! Double LOL.
Does anyone even understand the difference between an ICBM threat with a massive launch infrastructure behind it (and the potential for infinite false positives to distract a defense shield) and a Hamas guy with a rocket launcher and a crappy rocket?
It should be noted that the idea of "shooting down a missile with a missile", first broached in the 1960s, was a fantasy for the first 30 years or so; the technology simply wasn't there. (US Patriots during the Gulf War, for example, failed to positively intercept a single missile.) Only now are viable systems coming into service, much of the work the result of cooperative development between the US and Israel. (Arrow is a joint development project, while Iron Dome is an Israeli project, albeit with some US funding.)
I hate to make the comparison, but – n nDuring the Spanish civil war the Axis powers use the conflagration to test their latest battle weapons and strategies. n nIn many ways, both Israel and the United States are using the current fighting as a testing ground for weapons that will become essential in the event that radical Islam continues to disturb world peace.
Giving President Reagan credit for Iron Dome's success for investing in missile defense in the 1980s is like giving him credit for Jimmy Johnson's NASCAR championships because Reagan invested in petroleum in the 1980s. The only person smiling about this current conflict is the Ayatollah Khamanei, because as each day goes past without a decisive Israeli victory, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' ballistic missile command learns more and more about which cities Israel prioritizes for defense with Iron Dome interceptors and what the capabilities and limitations of these interceptors are. Find me someone who can level the playing field between cheap, abundant rockets and expensive, scarce interceptors, and I'll lionize him as much as you do Reagan.
While I applaud the overall tenor of Mr. Boot's post, it contains some technical flaws. The current NMD system that protects much of the country (but not the Northeast) does not primarily rely on SM-3 interceptors. It uses GBIs (Ground Based Interceptors) based at Fort Greeley, Alaska and at Vandenberg AFB. The GBIs are much larger and more capable than the SM-3, with the longer range and greater flyout velocity needed for midcourse intercept of ICBMs. n nThe system relies on DSP and Pave Paws EWR for launch warning, with the developmental SBIRS satellites providing supplemental capability. A single sea based X-band radar supports Battle Management and target discrimination. The Polish X-Band radar and European GBI site, cancelled by Obama, were required to protect the NE US from the Iranian ICBM site. His supposed replacement, using ground based SM-3s, will not protect against that threat. n nAegis/SM-3 is more useful for lower velocity/range IRBMs or for boost phase intercepts, when located near the launch point. Iron Dome is very impressive, but designed to handle short range, low velocity threats. IIIRC, Israel is developing additional systems to provide a full, layered defense.
The other thing we should remember is the Democrats took space based DEW weapons off the table and forbid their development and deployment. Boost phase intercept from space was always going to be the best way to stop the missiles as they rise like a giant stick of dynamite riding a 100 meter flame of exhaust. n nThe Democrats and the leftists knew it would work so stopped appropriations for these very promising defensive weapons.
Attempting to extrapolate from these tactical battlefield missile defenses to strategic missile defense is ludicrous and simply a display of a fundamental ignorance of both the technologies involved and the challenges presented. And space-based boost phase intercept is a complete wet-dream fantasy for any of a number of technical reasons. It SDI was a fools errand under Reagan and remains one today.