US Missile Shield already Defeated?

Anonymous Coward writes "Forbes is reporting that although interest in the missile defense system has waned while the US military addresses more pressing matters of immediate concern, the Russians have already developed an anti-missile-defense missile designed to defeat the system. Were the US military to actually prove that the missile defense shield worked, the Russian rocket's "zig-zag" flightpath taken en route to it's target would render the shield useless. Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the non-ballistic trajectory would leave the projectile virtually impossible to down or divert. The author feels inclined to say that the missile defense shield was intended as a defense against rogue states such as North Korea that have not acquired this technology yet."

Comments

Anti-anti-missle defense (redundant?)

[TiggertheMad]

The working alternative is MAD. I.e. if anyone attacks US we will have enough time to respond.

MAD is an excellent way of deterring an enemy that wants to live. What do you do if your opponent is perfectly willing to die just to kill you? For example, let's say that there was a hypothetical country in the middle east that was run by religious fanatics that thought that dying while killing their opponents would let them go to their religion's version of heaven. Then suppose that, being a state entity, they put their resources into acquiring the technology and knowledge needed to construct and deploy nuclear devices via missile. How would MAD provide any sort of deterrence to keep them from acting against their enemies?

I don't really think that the missile shield was intended to protect us from an attack from the former Soviet Union. Perhaps a stray missile that was fell into the wrong hands, or more likely, an attack from a rogue state.

In Soviet Russia, anyone?

[gr8dude]

Will somebody please make up an 'In Soviet Russia' joke?

What's wrong with you, slashdot? Somebody? Please?!