More on Those New Interceptors
I thought I’d follow-up regarding Jonn’s article from last week on the subject. In case anyone was wondering: there’s a good reason it will take until 2017 – or about 4 years from now – before those additional 14 interceptors for which the SECDEF recently announced deployment will be operational.
They’re silo-based. We have to build the silos. And we’re putting all of them in Alaska, which will complicate matters.
These interceptors – formally “Ground-Based Interceptors”, or GBIs – are big missiles. Each is about 55 feet long, over 4 feet in diameter, and heavy (14 tons). While it’s technically possible to put something like that on a large TEL (transporter-erector-launcher), doing so is a pain; you’re only going to do that if you need them to be mobile.
Time constraints also make mobile deployment a problem. You only have a short time to intercept a ballistic missile, so the interceptor needs to be essentially “combat ready” for immediate launch pretty much all the time. That is difficult with something on a TEL
The new interceptors are being deployed to a rather harsh environment, too: the vicinity of Fort Greely, Alaska. They’ll definitely need protection from the elements.
Given all of the above, silo-basing is thus really about the only rational choice for these interceptors if we’re putting them in Alaska.
It takes a while to build silos and get them operational. That’s particularly true at a place like Fort Greely that has a relatively short period of good outdoor weather each year.
Bottom line: it’s going to take a substantial period of time to get all of that done. Like about 4 years.
Four years ago was 2009. And I seem to remember decisions made that year which cut back planned deployments of GBIs for the US West Coast and Alaska from 44 to a total of 30 – or what we currently have in-place today.
Hmmm. Seems to me that if the current Administration hadn’t reduced planned deployments of GBIs four years ago we just might have those extra 14 missiles in place today. And we also wouldn’t be jumping through hoops today trying to make that happen, either.
Category: Military issues
You’re just upset that it’s Obama’s idea to deploy more interceptors, Hondo. You just can’t bring yourself to admit that our president, who is black by the way, is doing a great job on national security.
He killed Bin Laden, and now he’s deploying more interceptors to keep us safe, because Bush fucked up and only placed 30 in Alaska, when we need 44. Suck it, racists!
How’d I do, Joe?
Well, you made my eyes bleed, so good job Teddy.
teddy996: yeah, I guess it was racist of me to observe that the current POTUS cancelled his predecessor’s existing plans for installing those other 14 interceptors in 2009. It was also racist to observe that those same 14 interceptors would almost certainly have already been installed by now if they hadn’t been cancelled 4 years ago. Observing that this decision is a complete about-face back to exactly what his predecessor recommended in the first place is oh so racist, too. I guess I should really be ashamed of myself.
For Sippy’s benefit: I’m also being sardonic, not sarcastic, in this comment. In contrast, the last paragraph of the article above is mildly sarcastic.
And in case you missed it, Sippy: the POTUS isn’t the target of my sardonic comment here.
I will admit that teddy had me hook, line, and sinker.
teddy996,
ROFLMFAO!! Ya got me, pardner! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were looking at yourself in Sippy’s mirror.
@5- Impossible. I can’t fit both a mirror and my own head up my ass at the same time. Has to be one or the other.
Teddy? Is that REALLY you?
So what Clinton did, which was sell off military real estate like Glenview NAS to the south of me, and close down the whole Minunteman missile system — all that was just plain stupid?
Gee. I knew that. Bo da prez wanted to move the Coast Guard station from Illinois over to Michigan, but Da Maire said ‘no, we need them here, we have more boaters’. So we still have the Coasties here. There’s one down at 98th Street and one up at Milwaukee.
Do SAC and NORAD and the DEW line still exist? Are those NMD US missile bases that we had in Europe and UK in 2007 still there?
Does anyone besides me think that if, perchance, Bo da prez’s harsh words don’t work, he won’t know what to do next?
Well done, teddy!
According to sippy et al, everything this bunch does has nothing to do with their philosophy of life. Sippy et al would have us believe that their skin tone drives everything they do. Not my world view, but sippy et al would be in a better position to judge that than I am, so maybe he is correct?
How does it feel, sippy, to be aligned with those who have set back race relations in this country at least 50 years if not more??
Damn, you had me too, teddy!
I’m sure that B. Hussein 0bama saw those as necessary cutbacks, how are we to keep pace with the handouts to illegal aliens and dropouts, let alone B. Hussein 0bama & Family’s monthly vacations to get further away from us taxpaying peasants!!
maybe the reinstatement was a plan to spread the wealth.
@3 He had to cancel it when it was Bush’s plan….now he can call it his plan even if it is exactly the same plan as Bush. The best part is because he can now call it his plan the j4goffs on the left will applaud his far-sighted efforts to strengthen our defenses, even though they decried exactly the same plan 4+ years ago as needless.
Under Bush blue skies and green grass very bad, under Obama blues skies and green grass a little slice of heaven.