July 14, 2005 :: Analysis
Lowell Wood, senior staff scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, recently stated that the next U.S. president will have little choice other than to continue developing the current ballistic missile defense system. Quoted in a July 14 article in Defense Today, Wood emphasized that the next president will have to pursue missile defense, or else leave the nation at the mercy of hostile powers. Wood argued that regardless of who the next president is, the U.S. should follow three main objectives. First, it should create a “militarily effective system.” Second, the system should provide a “cost exchange advantage at the margin.” Third, it must be “robust in all plausible military environments,” meaning bad weather. In addition to these objectives, Wood warned against relying on what he termed “flimsy and readily countermeasured defenses,” which could be defeated by decoys or other such devices.
Although Wood’s outline of the principles which should be followed is sound, it remains quite possible that a Democrat or even Republican administration could continue a lackluster or halfhearted missile defense program, which though nominally progressing would not provide the adequate layered and robust defenses necessary to truly defend the United States.
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