[LINK] Missile Defence
Fri, 28 Feb 2003 11:46:09 +1100 (EST)
On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> At the risk of going off topic again, has anyone seen any sort of
> description of the proposed missile defence shield that the PM thinks we
> should investigate?
> I would have thought that a simple, back of an envelope calculation would
> have easily shown that, in the Australian environment, such a system is
> totally unsuitable.
> Putting my defence engineer hat on, questions that come to mind are:
> For countries that might possibly be a threat, what range are their
> Can we protect against mobile missiles - eg ship borne missiles that might
> come at us from any direction?
> Which cities are threatened?
> Assuming that missiles with unlimited range are developed - which cities
> would we want to protect? How would the other cities/states (probably most
> of SA, WA, TAS and NT) feel about paying for a system that didn't protect
> Where would we put radar stations, how many, how would we staff them
> (assuming that they were somewhere useful, ie well forward of the
> south-eastern cities?
BTW, what happened to Jindalee?
> Where would we put missile silos, how many, how would we staff them (see
> What is a rough estimate of the cost? - how does it compare with other
> forms of defence? Would it have stopped the attack on Bali?
> etc etc.
> This is actually quite relevant to Link. The way the current government is
> going about handling this technology issue shows that they are more
> concerned about politics than reality and about staying in power rather
> than looking after the interests of the people they are supposed to
> If we could find a way of using the internet to ensure the government gets
> re-elected, then money would come pouring our way. But then again, would we
> want such an outcome?
> A billion here and a billion there, and soon you're talking about
> real money.
> -- Everett McKinley Dirksen
> Bernard Robertson-Dunn
> Canberra Australia
> Link mailing list
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