General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDo we and other nations not have missile defense systems?
If NK let's the missiles fly wouldn't the US, Russia and China detect it and shoot them down?
Just wondering.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)jpak
(41,758 posts)We have radars and interceptors in Alaska - and some interceptors in CA.
The DoD is planning to build an East Coast interceptor base soon.
.....
U.S. missile defense system is simply unable to protect the public, report says
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-missile-defense-failings/
The system designed to defend American cities and towns against a nuclear attack by North Korea is simply unable to protect the U.S. public and will remain ineffective unless Congress exerts rigorous oversight, according to a new report.
The report, to be released Thursday by the Union of Concerned Scientists, recommends that the Obama administration halt the expansion of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, known as GMD, until its technical problems have been solved.
The story of this system is a cautionary tale about how the lack of appropriate oversight of a politically charged missile defense program has led to a system in tatters, said the report, written by three physicists with expertise in missile defense.
Despite more than a decade of development and a bill of $40 billion, the GMD system is simply unable to protect the U.S. public, the authors wrote.
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EX500rider
(10,849 posts)Japan & Korea also both have the ship-based system called the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_national_missile_defense#Current_NMD_program
RedWedge
(618 posts)TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)from a country will lots of missiles such as the U.S. and Russia. A massive missile attack would be accompanied by false devices to fool any anti-missile system. Then most of our delivery systems have multi warhead capabilities. The warheads are separated from the missile to go to their targets. It was found with the use of the Patriot anti-missile system that many of the hits on SCUDs were to the hot body of the missile which had ejected its warhead.
With NK there is no info that these alleged ICBMs can fly or even carry a nuclear warhead. These systems might be easy to take down. Time will tell. The Buffoon in Chief probably thinks the west coast is expendable. Right now I am not too fearful of NK striking us. I am more worried about us striking NK and getting into a massive war where our allies SK and Japan are damaged and the Tiger to the north wakes up to the debacle.
mn9driver
(4,428 posts)It's very hard to intercept something moving as fast as an ICBM. The US has hardware that can do this, but everything has to line up for it to work.
Bad timing, bad geometry, equals failure. Throw in decoys and the success rate drops even more.