Possible anti-missile system in our town

[Anomalocaris]

Meh... I've lived in a high value target area for most of my life and no one has nuked us yet.

Property values are probably not going to suffer unless the launchers are literally in sight of your yard. They might even increase a little based on new decent paying jobs coming to the area.

As far as threats go the one I would be most worried about is North Korea if they can manage to build a nuke weighing less than a ton. They would be more of a threat to the western part of the the US than Ohio though, and not a major threat to anyone.

The missile defense also needs to be deployed in a way that lends credence to our propaganda and posture towards Iran.

Ultimately the choice of Ohio is probably dictated by the need to cover east coast from an attack from china. China has publicly acknowledged the development of a new heavy mobile missile, long anticipated in the west, that can cover all of continental US from anywhere in china with up to 10 warheads each. The missile is fired from mobile cross country TELs and may be difficult or impossible to get with any preemptive strike before launch or during boost stage. So terminal defense might be the only conceivable defense against them.

Although with the ability to carry up to 10 warheads, just half dozen such missiles would completely saturate American missile defense as currently envisioned publicly.

---

What are they going to shoot? Effigy of copulating giraffe couples?

That's probably why the unicorns didn't make it.....

Yeah, those spikes on their heads would make them trebuchet projectiles of first choice.

[Mystical]

But.. But.. We have HAARP. Who needs missile defense when we can alter the ionosphere itself?

Cindy, my condolences. I used to live up near Norad.

[CindysRain]

Yea, I'm not having a meltdown or anything, and I don't pretend to know what this all means, it's just very disconcerting!

I posted this on fb, and my nephew said, "Um yeah Aunt Cindy, that's like right in your back yard." My point exactly.

[Zack]

The Department of Defense loves to spend money on this project and wants to do so in your community. Why not? Unfortunately, the reliability of a national missile defense system is sketchy at best. Are those things even capable of hitting ICBMs yet? Past attempts have been failures. I remember in the 90s and early 2000s they couldn't hit their targets. Granted, some time has passed but I don't recall the DoD ever saying they had perfected it. We went from, "can't hit a bullet with a bullet" to "hey, this works great and needs MORE funding!" When exactly was it determined a success? I am sure we are closer than before, but are you willing to bet your life it works as intended? The Chinese have started testing ballistic missiles such as the Wu-14, which are designed to penetrate these countermeasures anyway. In the case of nuclear war, I think you are better off having the big target on your back. Better to go out in a flash of light, than assume the real life role of The Road's protagonist.

[Ravenshire]

From the article:

"When countries around the world are interested in harming us learn that we have a military installation here, we will be on their list," said opponent Mary Greer.

They already know you have a military installation there. You're already on their list.

Unless it's one of the installations that has been mothballed and they're re-opening it, it's already a target. Adding missile defense may move it up the list, but it's not adding it to a list.

[Anomalocaris]

I doubt any country other than Russia will attempt to target the actual sites of American missile defense installations. All other countries, including china, currently have few enough nuclear missile and warheads as it is. They can't afford to waste any on missile defense site. The chance of their warheads getting through to a missile defense site is probably no better than getting through to New York City. Yet a hit on a missile defense site will not incur heavy damage to US as a nation, while a hit on NYC will incur unacceptable pain upon the US. Yet hits at either place will invite American. Unclear retaliation.

So if it comes to lunching nuclear attacks, other countries might as well play for the maximum damage and pain by throwing all they have at high value targets like major population centers, rather than half assedly throw things at a missile defense site.

[Minimalist]

Sounds like the Pentagon is rolling out their usual propaganda. Jobs.

[popeyespappy]

From my not to comfy seat in the floor in the comms room at camp schwab in Okinawa it isn't propaganda. There are 16 people here this morning working on 4 different projects. One soldier, three government civilians, 6 japanese contractors and the rest American contractors. These are real jobs not some figment of someone's imagination.

[Minimalist]

There are many ways to look at that issue, Pap.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/...s-insists/

Lawmakers from both parties have devoted nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer money over the past two years to build improved versions of the 70-ton Abrams

But senior Army officials have said repeatedly, "No thanks."

Yet in the case of the Abrams tank, there's a bipartisan push to spend an extra $436 million on a weapon the experts explicitly say is not needed.

"If we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way," Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, told The Associated Press this past week.

Why are the tank dollars still flowing? Politics.

Keeping the Abrams production line rolling protects businesses and good paying jobs in congressional districts where the tank's many suppliers are located.

If there's a home of the Abrams, it's politically important Ohio. The nation's only tank plant is in Lima. So it's no coincidence that the champions for more tanks are Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Rob Portman, two of Capitol's Hill most prominent deficit hawks, as well as Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. They said their support is rooted in protecting national security, not in pork-barrel politics.

Portman, Jordan and Brown are totally full of shit.

[popeyespappy]

I dont argue that the government doesn't waist money. Nor do I think that we wouldn't be better off if the defense budget was cut way back. This despite my earning a good living working in the defense industry. Only that defense spending does create real jobs for real people. If spending is cut and those jobs go away many of those people are going to jave a hard time finding new ones.