Another Reason Missile Defense Must be Perfected

BigRob

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China's military is deploying a new anti-ship ballistic missile that can sink U.S. aircraft carriers, a weapon that specialists say gives Beijing new power-projection capabilities that will affect U.S. support for its Pacific allies.

Full story.

"Wallace "Chip" Gregson, assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs, said in a speech earlier this month that China's new anti-access and area-denial weapons, including the DF-21D, 'threaten our primary means of projecting power: our bases, our sea and air assets, and the networks that support them.'"

As he says, this is a major issue for projecting power in all of Southeast Asia, and we don't seem to be doing anything to counter a more aggressive Chinese government.

This about sums it up pretty well in my opinion:

Clearly, China's communist leadership is not impressed by the administration's ending of F-22 production, its retirement of the Navy's nuclear cruise missile, START Treaty reductions in U.S. missile warheads, and its refusal to consider U.S. space warfare capabilities. Such weakness is the surest way to invite military adventurism from China.

It must also be noted here that Chinese weapons have a way of ending up in Iranian hands as well. I am not saying this system will be one of those in any form in the near future, but imagine a world in which the United States is denied access to the Persian Gulf and large areas of Southeast Asia... that is clearly a troubling scenario.
 
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Its also simply a matter of time before we are as well though. if we build a missile defense for the carrier, they just fire more missiles then we can defend. we make system better, they build one to defeat it again...faster missiles..more of them...multi warhead.....we build better system...they again do same...

Like I said before, I don't think we are going to see anti missile tech..ever outpace the ability to make better missiles first. already to be ready for all things, our missile deffence would have to be ready to deal with hypersonic missiles just to keep ahead...and we are still working on making sure we can take out slow moving scuds with accuracy.

of course that does not mean we just don't try...but I think by around 2040'sor so...aircraft carriers are going to be less and less useful regardless. figure take what the x-51 , 600 miles in 10 min? speeds of mach 5 or 6? .if US where to realy put the money into it...and then factor in what it could do 20 years after...and think how hard it would be to build a missile to hit a missile at mach 5 or 6...
 
Its also simply a matter of time before we are as well though.

Before we are as well what? Deploying anti-ship missiles? Fine, but that is totally irrelevant to the issue of area denial for our ships in Southeast Asia.

if we build a missile defense for the carrier, they just fire more missiles then we can defend. we make system better, they build one to defeat it again...faster missiles..more of them...multi warhead.....we build better system...they again do same...

We already have the groundwork in place for a very good missile defense system that could combat such a threat. With any carrier group deployment, they are accompanied by Aegis ships (which are being upgraded to the new SM-Block IIA missile). That is a good thing.

Unfortunately, we canceled such programs as the MKV, which would greatly enhance defenses against multi-warhead missiles and larger scale attacks.

I also think you underestimate just how much an impact the presence of a weapon system (even if not fully tested) can have... just look at our initial response to this deployment. We are already thinking about pulling back and limiting our area of operations... all because of a missile that has not been tested or proven to work in the capacity that we think it ultimately will.

Following that line of thinking, the development (and even simply the presence) of a missile defense system that is more capable than our current deployment can have a dramatic effect on the strategies other nations employ to limit our power projections.

Like I said before, I don't think we are going to see anti missile tech..ever outpace the ability to make better missiles first. already to be ready for all things, our missile deffence would have to be ready to deal with hypersonic missiles just to keep ahead...and we are still working on making sure we can take out slow moving scuds with accuracy.

of course that does not mean we just don't try...but I think by around 2040'sor so...aircraft carriers are going to be less and less useful regardless. figure take what the x-51 , 600 miles in 10 min? speeds of mach 5 or 6? .if US where to realy put the money into it...and then factor in what it could do 20 years after...and think how hard it would be to build a missile to hit a missile at mach 5 or 6...

We already have the technology in place with our current missile defense system to destroy a missile traveling much faster than Mach 5.

You also have to remember that this missile is not a cruise missile, but rather is going to have to exit the atmosphere and then come back and acquire its target... which makes it vastly easier to shoot down, or even just knock off course (assuming of course the presence of a working missile defense capability)
 
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Before we are as well what? Deploying anti-ship missiles? Fine, but that is totally irrelevant to the issue of area denial for our ships in Southeast Asia.



We already have the groundwork in place for a very good missile defense system that could combat such a threat. With any carrier group deployment, they are accompanied by Aegis ships (which are being upgraded to the new SM-Block IIA missile). That is a good thing.

Unfortunately, we canceled such programs as the MKV, which would greatly enhance defenses against multi-warhead missiles and larger scale attacks.

I also think you underestimate just how much an impact the presence of a weapon system (even if not fully tested) can have... just look at our initial response to this deployment. We are already thinking about pulling back and limiting our area of operations... all because of a missile that has not been tested or proven to work in the capacity that we think it ultimately will.

Following that line of thinking, the development (and even simply the presence) of a missile defense system that is more capable than our current deployment can have a dramatic effect on the strategies other nations employ to limit our power projections.



We already have the technology in place with our current missile defense system to destroy a missile traveling much faster than Mach 5.

You also have to remember that this missile is not a cruise missile, but rather is going to have to exit the atmosphere and then come back and acquire its target... which makes it vastly easier to shoot down, or even just knock off course (assuming of course the presence of a working missile defense capability)

Of course a area denial system will have that effect...that's the point of it...But unless we can have a system in place to defend against it, before they can have the missiles ready to go...it will not do much good...and like I said...what ever system we put in place...all China is going to do..is spend money to overtake that system. The US is busy fighting wars all over the world right now..while china has one main focus...and that is..regional denial systems against our navy. in any race of us to be ready to defend against it, and them to have a system to defeat us...I am betting on the long term on China winning that battle. Build enough of this system, add to that the advancing anti ship missiles from subs China is also working on...even if we think our system works...you think we would be willing to bet a fleet on it unless we planned to go to war? I doubt it...newer and newer missile design I think it going in the end, make naval power less and less important.

and as you know, my overall view is...Bullets will always outpace armor
Missiles will always outpace anti missile systems..
Tank Rounds will always outpace tank armor..
and so on..sure at times it may catch up, but will be short lived.

and if you can't make it better, you can always win with numbers. and nothing the US does is going to change that in the end.
 
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