Slashdot Mirror
US Missile Defense Test Fails
KingRobot sends news that a recent test of a US missile defense system has failed. The test of the Groundbased Midcourse Defense interceptor apparently had a problem with the sea-based X-band radar. Both the target missile, launched from the Pacific, and the interceptor, launched from California, performed as expected. "Yesterday's test was intended to quell doubters of the entire missile-defense approach, with the target missile deploying countermeasures. Critics of the GMD programme say that tests thus far, which have not included such spoilers, have been too kind to the intercept tech. The [military] isn't disclosing whether the intercepting kill vehicle had simply failed to reach the 'threat cluster' of warhead(s) and decoys, or whether it had reached the cluster but hit a countermeasure rather than the actual target."
Actually, you're wrong.
In the first place, the Patriot missiles were only partially successful. Since they weren't intended for the purpose of defending large areas, that is acceptable, and they've been improved since them. But the Patriot missiles are a short range defense.
There have been previous successful tests. A simple google search turned up the following:
Reuters
Military Defense Agency
Heritage Foundation
Hey Jackass, did you include all the supplemental spending?
$685 billion is the base. Then through the course of year the defense gets more money from congress.
We are spending $10 Billion/month in Iraq. We have already spent over several Trillions dollars are the Iraq fiasco alone!!
Get a clue moron, defense spending is the largest part of the US expenditures. The deference is it's not an entitlement program, it just acts like one.