penis of Congress and conservative lobbyist have been celebrating a very exceptional natal day : President George W. Bush ’s official activation of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system . But the lamentable truth is that they ’re lionise 10 years of self - delusion . The undertaking is give way , despite the $ 40 billion spent on it .
projectile defence advocates chose to swallow the gloomy tab and wash it down with Kool - Aid . In fact , the “ 10 - year birthday ” itself is a dubious overstatement . As Laura Grego , a physicist and expert on missile defense recentlyobserved :
Despite declaring [ in 2004 ] the mission was attain , much work stay to be done . For example , only five [ anti - missile ] interceptors were in seat that 24-hour interval , and it would be almost exactly two years before an intercept test of the kind of interceptor that were fielded was even attempt . It was another year beyond that — on September 28 , 2007 — before an intercept test was successful .
And that successful mental test was a rarity . During the last 10 years , the Missile Defense Agency ( MDA ) has stag just nine tests and interceptor destroyed an incoming load in only three of them . “ batten .333 may be bang-up in baseball , but against nuclear - tipped missiles it is just inadequate,”writesTom Collina of the Arms Control Association .
A Rush To Failure
We should n’t be surprised by these failure . The U.S. Ground - Based Midcourse Defense ( GMD ) system that was chosen for national Department of Defense against ballistic projectile has been molest by mismanagement and design flaws since the Bush administration decided to hasten it into ontogenesis . The National Academy of Sciences ’ National Research Council publish a 260 - pagestudy , saying that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency ’s efforts “ have spawned an almost ‘ hobby workshop ’ coming , with many false starts on poorly analyzed concepts . ”
At the heart of these problems is a polish at MDA and its contractors with ancestor that go back to January 2 , 2002 , when the Secretary of Defense excuse MDA from following the Pentagon ’s normal rule for acquiring a weapons organisation : In the service of gather the Bush establishment ’s slopped deadline , many of the standard Defense Department ’s regulations on develop , examination and acquisition of armed services organization were relaxed or completely discarded . The Pentagon mantra of “ vanish before you buy ” was interchange with “ buy and sample to make it vanish . ”
Indeed , Frank Kendall , the U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition , Technology and Logistics , toldAviation calendar week magazine earlier this twelvemonth :
“ The detailed engineering that should have been applied to these early designs was n’t there … We are seeing a lot of risky technology , frankly , and it is because there was a rush [ to field ] . … Just patching the things we have is probably not go to be enough , so we are probably go to have to go beyond that . ”
Throwing Good Money After Bad
Yet , despite numerous failed tests , the U.S. has deploy 30 interceptor missiles at Fort Greeley , Alaska , and Vandenberg Air Force Base , California . An additional 14 interceptor are scheduled to be deploy in Alaska by 2017 .
To particular date , one of the most problematical elements of the GMD system has been the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle ( EKV ) , which is mount up on the interceptors . The EKV is suppose to detach , detect and ruin the incoming terror by fly into blank space and striking the target missile at velocities draw near 22,000 miles per hour .
Again , job with the EKV should n’t come as a surprise . As Philip Coyle , the former Director of Operational Test and Evaluation at the Department of Defense recentlywrote :
The September 8 , 2014 , report of the Department of Defense Inspector General , “ Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle [ EKV ] Quality Assurance and Reliability Assessment , Part A , ” criticise the sloppy work encounter 48 “ nonconformance ” with good practice . Twenty - two of those are “ major , ” have in mind “ nonfulfillment of a necessary that is potential to result in the nonstarter of the character direction system or reduce its ability to ensure keep in line processes or compliant products / services . ”
For those of you who do n’t talk wonk , this means the Ground - based Midcourse Defense organisation deployed in Alaska and California and designed to protect the U.S. motherland against a potential North Korean or Iranian projectile attack is n’t dependable .
Part B of the reputation analyzes the reliability of the EKVs now deployed in the subject area in Alaska and California , but that story will be classified so taxpayers wo n’t see the bottom line .
A few days by and by , the Inspector General relinquish yet anotherreport , say that the Missile Defense Agency could ’ve saved zillion of dollars on a $ 1 billion contract , if it had n’t ignored passport made by the Defense Contract Audit Agency .
Yet , despite repeated instance of mismanagement and waste , projectile defending team advocates are memorialize the 10th birthday of the course of study by kvetch that not enough money is being spent . Senator Jim Inhofe ( R - OK)bemoanedthe fact that funding will average a mere $ 1 billion per year over the next five years . He wants to fight that number back up to $ 2 billion .
But , venerate not , taxpayers . Rep. Lamar Smith ( R - TX ) , the Chairman of the House Science Committee on Science , Space and Technology , has begun a prison term - consume auditof the National Science Foundation ’s peer - reviewed grants , to make certain taxpayer money is not being squander on frivolous inquiry . He expects to bring through thousands of dollar bill .
https://gizmodo.com/the-gop-intensifies-its-attacks-on-the-national-science-1645733575
And , to think , people complain that there ’s insufficient inadvertence of government outlay in Congress . So , Happy Birthday , national missile defence ! It ’s safe to say you ’ll be fete many more .
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