We’ve written before on the U.S. military’s quest to be able to attack targets anywhere in the world even more quickly than we currently can. Why take hours to destroy a “fleeting” — that’s the word that’s usually used — nuclear-related or terror target when time is of the essence? This has been a big issue among some hawks, although they rarely note we inevitably lack the necessary intelligence to make such wonder weapons worthwhile.
But such birds of prey need not worry. The Obama Administration has just detailed to skeptical senators that the pending nuclear-arms pact with Russia won’t hinder the development of such speedy arms:
The New START Treaty allows the United States to deploy CPGS [conventional prompt global strike] systems, and does not in any way limit or constrain research, development, testing, and evaluation of such concepts and systems, which offer the prospect of striking any target in the world in less than an hour.
In fact, the Pentagon plans on spending “well over” $1 billion on such weapons in the next five years. Maybe by the time they get them into the arsenal our intel capabilities will have improved enough to make the investment worthwhile. And maybe they’ll be capable of shooting down flying pigs, as well.