Yet again, the glorious pie in the sky dream of Reaganites has failed.
Despite spending billions upon billions of dollars. Despite scrapping the ABM treaty at the risk of a renewed nuclear arms race. Despite the label "operational," and despite FEERLESS LEADER's lies, Missile defense (BMD) has failed in yet another test.
(Sources, and quotes below)
BBC tells it this way:
Missile defence shield test fails
The first test in almost two years of the planned multi-billion dollar US anti-missile shield has failed.
The Pentagon said an interceptor missile did not take off and was automatically shut down on its launch pad in the central Pacific.
SNIP
The Pentagon is spending $10bn a year on the missile system, which was meant to be in operation by the end of 2004.
The Missile Defence Agency said an "unknown anomaly" was to blame for the system shutting down.
CNN (AP) says this: U.S. missile defense test fails
The Missile Defense Agency has attempted to conduct the test several times this month, but scrubbed each one for a variety of reasons, including various weather problems and a malfunction on a recovery vessel not directly related to the equipment being tested.
SNIP
However, the agency said the ground-based interceptor "experienced an anomaly shortly before it was to be launched" from the Ronald Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean 16 minutes after the target missile left Alaska.
Your tax dollars at work.
The military is in final preparations to activate missile defenses designed to protect against an intercontinental ballistic missile attack from North Korea or elsewhere in eastern Asia.
Wednesday's test was to have been the first in which the interceptor used the same booster rocket that the operational system would use.
In earlier testing of tracking and targeting systems, which critics derided as highly scripted, missile interceptors went five-for-eight in hitting target missiles.
So isn't it true that the successful interceptions of the past several years were all due to the fact that there was a homing beacon on the target? Isn't that why critics "derided" the tests? Both accounts of this staggering success story fail to mention this.
Another historic blunder is that the "Star Wars" label, as I recall, was a derisive descriptor: critics were basically calling Reagan's dream science fiction. And here we are 25 years later with nothing but red ink.
Hey folks: tell your Canadian friends about this and tell them to write to the Martin Government that this thig is BAD. Here's the PM's address:
Prime Minister Paul Martin.