Something Is Wrong When You Need A High Rate Of Fire But Ammunition Costs $500 Million Per Shot

By BERNHARD, EDITOR OF MOON OF ALABAMA

US Missile Defense

North Korea was just reminded how it could ruin the United States:

The Pentagon plans to spend almost $18 billion to develop, produce and support its new interceptor to stop incoming nuclear missiles from North Korea or Iran, the first major defense procurement award of the Biden administration, according to newly released figures.
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The interceptors are designed to crash into and destroy incoming missiles from an adversary such as North Korea or Iran. They would be installed on missiles based in Alaska. Each of the 31 interceptors is estimated to cost about $498 million.

The new interceptor is intended to correct the mistakes of a failed warhead program that spanned the Obama and Trump administrations before it was canceled in August 2019 after $1.2 billion was spent on a project meant for deployment in 2023.

Out of the 31 interceptors 10 will be for testing and only 21 will be deployed.

To hit an incoming warhead or decoy three interceptors must be fired to reach a kill probability above 95%. 21 interceptors could defeat 7 targets. That are probably more than North Korea has.

But North Korea could MIRV its missiles, i.e. put Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles on top of each of them. They do not need to carry expensive nuclear warheads. One missile carrying seven decoys would be enough to empty all of the Ground Based Missile Defense (GMD) silos. That would leave the U.S. unprotected from the next shot which could or could not come.

One missile, built for probably a few million dollars, could easily put the new $18 billion defense missiles to waste.

Could Kim Jong Un release some photos that show a MIRV-ed North Korean missile? Could he hold a parade with more missiles on show? That might induce the U.S. to buy more interceptor missiles. Rinse and repeat and the U.S. is ruined.

The Government Accountability Office just published its 2020 report on the Missile Defense Agency. Unsurprisingly the MDA delivered less than planned, tested less than planned while many of its tests still failed. The whole agency is a huge waste of money that has no discernible way to success.

Missile defense is a boondoggle for weapon producers. That is the only reason why Congress keeps financing it.

Posted by b on April 28, 2021 at 17:08 UTC | Permalink

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