NEWS: NATO To Institute Missile Defense System Within 5 Years

BRUSSELS - After 10 years of debate, The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) announced on Wednesday its intention to establish a theatre missile defence system before 2010. NATO, whose member states also comprise the majority of the European Union, cited "a number of foreign nations continue working on ballistic missile programmes" as well as the observation of Saddam's SCUD missiles in the 1990's as grounds for the decision.



Theatre missile defence systems, or "Terminal High Altitude Area Defence", differ from the U.S's National Missile Defence (NMD) in that they are intended to provide protection from theatre or regional threats as opposed to intercontinental threats.

The decision is a significant display of solidarity between NATO member states; solidarity which has been called into question in light of varying stances on the Iraq invasion.



NATO Member States which are also EU Member States
Belgium
Denmark
France
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
United Kingdom
Greece
Germany
Spain
Czech Republic
Poland
Hungary
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Slovakia
Slovenia

NATO Member States which are to become EU Member States in 2007
Romania
Bulgaria

NATO Member States which are official candidates for the EU
Turkey

Other NATO Member States
United States
Canada
Iceland
Norway

Other EU Member States
Ireland
Austria
Sweden
Finland
Malta
Cyprus
Estonia

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I remember the US tried THAAD and It was quite a big failure if I recall correctly.

I think they might go for a modified version of the Israeli/US Arrow Project.

They wouldn't set a timeline of 5 years unless they had an existing system in mind (and one they could go public with), so I'm betting this is more for show than anything else.

The funny thing is that nowadays, the nuke threat isn't an ICBM, or even a swarm of them...it's a suitcase carried by a disgruntled nut job, then detonated in a population center...

Ok, lets develope a suitcase shield

Or, perfect a "Nutjob Shield"...

Sounds vaguely obscene though.

Originally posted by Silenus
Ok, lets develope a suitcase shield

Haha "Nutjob Shield" i like it!

This begs the question then, why bother making a shield against a method that won't be used?

Originally posted by Nerdling
I remember the US tried THAAD and It was quite a big failure if I recall correctly.I think they might go for a modified version of the Israeli/US Arrow Project.

THAAD is actually still in test last I saw and its not a stand alone system but rather a upper tier system designed to compliment a Patriot of Arrow battery.

THAAD will destroy a ballistic missile as it transitions from the midcourse to terminal phase of its trajectory.
A land-based element that has the capability to shoot down a short or medium range ballistic missile in its final stages of flight, both inside and just outside of the atmosphere.
Consists of four principal components: truck-mounted launchers; interceptors; radars; and command, control and battle management (C2BM). System has rapid mobility so that it can be air-lifted to almost anywhere in the world within hours.
All system components fit inside a C-130 aircraft for transport around the world.
www.acq.osd.mil...

Three tests are scheduled for this year. As with the ABM system in place at Ft. Greely, there is still guidence issues and tracking.
www.acq.osd.mil...

Myself it will be a PAC-3 derivative combined with a naval based system based on the Standard Missile 3 that is being tested and deployed on ships with the Aegis system

.
Let's hope NATO actually does some research and testing before they deploy a system, unlike the money squandering idiots in the US.

Instead of some baroque sensor guided missile perhaps they will examine small rapidly fireable projectiles or various EM wavelengths as other less costly and probably more effective methods of intercepting an incoming missile.

If you have to use a multi-million dollar missile to try to shoot down an incoming missile, if you miss it is zilch effective. It is also incredibly expensive hit or miss.

With a stream of super highspeed small projectiles or EM wave methods the response time is probably going to be much quicker and quite possibly less expensive. If it is less expensive then you can also shoot at some decoys along with the actual missile, so those evasion methods won't work for attackers.

I wonder if with microwaves you could superheat the air infront of an incoming missile and essentially melt/burn it in mid-flight.
microwaves permeate on cloudy days don't they?

edit:spelling

[edit on 18-3-2005 by slank]