-By Kevin Roeten
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) claims the Chinese Air Force Could Overwhelm Opponents – Patriot Update in a battle in the Taiwan Strait. Even with a 6 to 1 kill ratio by American jets, a Rand simulation program in “war gaming” still reveals that the Americans would lose. This was revealed in an interview with Aviation Week (1/9/11). Even with all American missiles spent with a kill, more Chinese jets would presumably be available to wreak mass havoc.
That scenario is not likely true if all of China’s arsenal of jets are not in the near vicinity of Taiwan.
But for ballistic missiles—those able to traverse continents—their speed (10-15,000 mph) and nuclear capability–would cancel out sheer numbers of attacking ‘bogies’. The scary part is what President Obama presently knows.
He knows that American technology with missiles enables a spot on a “bullet” to be hit by another “bullet”. He knows that America has demonstrated its ability to shoot down any incoming missile with a non-aggressive missile that could destroy the interloper with the sheer speed of contact.
He also knows America is obtaining the ability to destroy an incoming ballistic missile described in the Boeing Feature Story: Airborne Laser Test Bed: Science fiction no more. But when Boeing’s Airborne Laser Defense Fails the Test (9/2010), all was was not lost. This showed what was missing, and what went wrong, with success eventually being able to be achieved.
One would think even having the first option would control the arms races in the world. In fact, the use of this technology could render any alien missile useless if shot down by another missile.
The perfect scenario could have been North Korea’s recent missile launches towards American targets. Everyone knew that the North Korean missile did not yet have the range to get to its target, but everyone would know if America had downed a ballistic missile. No one hurt. No one killed. An act of aggression completely nullified without any casualties. An emerging technology from a rogue state completely eliminated by a superior technology. North Korea would be upset, but could do nothing about it.
An “umbrella” of protection could be put around nations incorporated into the plan of nuclear protection. Nuclear ballistic missiles against America, and any protected nation-state, would become a thing of the past. Only rogue countries could be targets for missiles. They would quietly scramble to eliminate any nuclear armament within their border so they could be protected by an “umbrella” as well.
Terrorists who would launch such a salvo to make a point, would quickly find fewer and fewer ballistic missiles available to launch. Besides, if launched, a missile defense shield would quickly decimate any airborne missile. They would have to rely on singular home-built nuclear devices to sneak under the ‘BMD’ (ballistic missile defense) ‘nets’. But systems are already in place to detect such devices.
Obama knows all of this. But he likely would obliterate any country who attacked us with ballistic missiles. People wasted—millions could die. He could have made his point clear well before, as mentioned earlier. With a shared missile shield he could literally save millions of a neighboring, or possibly even a friendly, foreign country. He could have saved the world from an escalating Armageddon-type scenario from nuclear-tipped and WMD missiles.
He could have started the world on the road to a nuclear-free society—something most envision as a specter of the future. He could have saved all those lives destroyed by a WMD-lad missile never launched because of BMD.
One has to wonder what is actually in his mind. Of course, a daring reporter could always ask his plans during a press conference. Obama would probably not give a straight answer, though.
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Kevin Roeten has written columns for over 10 years, after being a Chemical Engineer with Dupont for 20. A devout Catholic and staunch conservative, he loves to marry the ‘third rail’ of religion and politics into many of his articles.
Kevin Roeten can be reached at roetenks@charter.net.