Military's Multiple Kill Vehicle is Dead

[baov]

Retro-rockets? How about just a blimp?

 

[Grims]

[citation][nom]jerreece[/nom]LOL I'm sorry but that thing is scary looking. Even if it didn't fire rounds at an enemy, just the sight and sound of that thing would freak people out. All those little rockets blasting repeatedly off that thing to keep it in air is nuts.I wasn't expecting to see a video of something so crude frankly. That looked like a home built experiment more than it did a secrete government project. LOL![/citation]

Secret? it's been public sense Regan.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]Grims[/nom]Secret? it's been public sense Regan.[/citation]

Star Wars what?

 

[unlicensedhitman]

This is just random.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]Techninaj10[/nom]Ummm, no they didn't. The DoD REQUESTED that the funding be removed. Don't you read your own articles?[/citation]Hey genius... Pentagon = controlled by administration. They do as they're told, they're the puppet of the government, not the other way around. Not that hard to figure out who is behind the budget cuts here, or who cut out future Raptor orders. Or who cut the public safety officers' death benefits program, for that matter.

But its OK to nationalize the banks and pour hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet, only to watch in wonder as unemployment rises, despite all that hot we-must-vote-without-reading-this-bill action.

 

[thundercleese]

I love MKV's! I watch most of my anime that way.

 

[norbs]

[citation][nom]wikiwikiwhat[/nom]John Conner must have come back from the future and warned Obama.[/citation]
LOL You beat me to it, I posted without even reading your post.

 

[danimal_the_animal]

It looks pretty cheap if you ask me!!!!

 

[hikayu]

most technologies we're using right now came from military projects , why stop now ? to be honest , i not really happy with obama right now . he cut back fund for NASA and now cutting back military project ? i guess whatever it takes to pull the economy back up without legalizing drug which im strongly against .in the defense of the MKV , i think about the v-22 osprey . at the time it was developed , people thought it was a dangerous machine . it was a dangerous machine alright , but it takes blood and sweat to do amazing things .

 

[Hellbound]

lol, my post got removed. I said nothing offensive. Just wasnt very Obama friendly. I guess you guys support that tyrant. In a world where Islamic radicals seek to kill Americans simply for being American, cutting military funding is not a smart idea.

So much about this president is wrong. Killing the MKV project while other countries seek to create nuclear weapons makes me wonder what his true goal is. I dont trust him.

Btw, I'm not a Bush fan. But I believe Bush wanted to protect this country..no matter what.

 

[nottheking]

While a lot of military technology is important, I would note that if the budget is to be balanced, military spending is going to HAVE to be cut. Everyone talking about the budget likes to speak about capping/trimming/eliminating "non-Defense discretionary spending," which covers a huge range of government programs, the court system, the government's own operations... But the fact is, the deficeits are reaching a level where they're soon going to EXCEED the combined value of all that spending. In other words, the US government could outright shut its doors on everything but the military, close down the Capitol and the White House, along with the courts, and the money saved would STILL not balance the budget. That's because the Defense budget is roughly half of all Federal non-mandatory spending. That's right, the DoD gets about as money as every other department of the US government combined.

Granted, the MKV would have a use... But it's also a question of WHEN it'd have a use. Whose longer-range ballistic missiles is it going to intercept? As someone with a pretty extensive background in WMDs, this is a rather interesting and important question.

North Korea's? Their nuclear weapons projects have yielded relative duds, that like all early A-bombs, are too massive to load on a missile. Plus, the range on their missiles is still too poor to reach anything other than South Korea and Japan, which are too close for the MKV to really reach anyway, ESPECIALLY South Korea.

Iran's? Iran doesn't have anything beyond short-range ballistic missiles. Their best range is that they could strike Israel. So chances are the MKV would be useless for defending Israel, too. Plus, of course, Iran still doesn't have a nuclear bomb yet, and it'd be years before they could make one small enough to fit their missiles.

Russia's? Well, if you cut through their claims, it turns out that they only a single Typhoon-class submarine in actual shape to go to sea and launch missiles, and it's been too busy with its silos full of dummy test drones for a new type of missile that won't see production for a long while. That leaves them with a number of dated Delta-class submarines, (again with only a tiny number in any shape to do anything) and perhaps a couple hundred functional land-based ICBMs... And we know Russia's infamous history of their rockets exploding on the launch pad.

China's? Well, last I checked, China had all of 10 longer-range ICBMs capable of striking... Alaska or SoCal, so no loss. Oh, they're also kept disassembled off of their launch pads, not in convenient silos that keep them ready to fire at a moment's notice. If they were assembling them with nukes, we'd have hours upon hours of time, plenty enough to run a sortie off of a nearby carrier to destroy the missiles before they could even be launched.

So, excepting the above, that leaves us with, uh, the UK and France? And I honestly don't expect the USA to go to war with either anytime soon. I mean, on one side you've got the UK, a very close ally... And on the other side, you've got France. FRANCE!

Yes, Robert Gates has announced that he's going to try to request a lot less money for the Defense Department this time around, potentially in hopes of curbing their ballooning budget; another casualty is that he's calling to cut off F-22 production after "only" around 200 or so, rather than the some 750+ that some wanted. Of course, this will likely meet opposition from some members of Congress, who like having all those millions of federal dollars going to plane manufacturers in their districts. So we'll see what happens.

 

[mlopinto2k1]

Sense Regan? = SINCE... Anyway, that device would prove to be useful on a WARHEAD which I am sure would require such powerful retro thrusts to manuever such a heavy intercept missile. On another note, at first, ignorant to the real use, I thought it was a crude version of a futuristic (star wars) type drone of sorts. If that was the case, actually seeing something like that being needed in my life span really scares the crap outta me. It would just seem way too advanced for our needs. We have not even researched more then 2% of our own oceans let alone land on the moon again. Now drones that burn tons of fuel? Thank you President Obama! Anyone that dislikes my hail to Obama can kiss my nuts.

 

[mlopinto2k1]

I hate to be rude but to comment on Hellbounds post, grow up. You are scared of being vulnerable in a country that has created it's own enemies. I would be too, I guess. I am not though, I would lay down my weapons and take one for the team just to prove a point that violence is NOT the answer. Some people really just think that is just a "STATEMENT"... noooo.... it is REALITY! I am sure the earth created humans to destroy it. Yea, OK!!!

 

[Ciuy]

lol that thing so high tech? wtf if i look hard i can find some kind of chinese toy that does the exact same thing.

and u can hear that from a mile . Better a SAM then that thing .

What a waste of money ... US military watched to much Terminator.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]AlexTheBlue[/nom]Hey genius... Pentagon = controlled by administration. They do as they're told, they're the puppet of the government, not the other way around. Not that hard to figure out who is behind the budget cuts here~[/citation]

Oh you MEAN just like Team Bush created the fake WMDs that were never there with FAKE intel, outted out a CIA agent and invaded a country based on lies killing over 4,000 Americans and severely injuring over 25,000? Yeah, REMEMBER that!

Don't forget the Torture that Team Bush Okayed. Breaking international law. We, the USA have jailed Amercans and Japanese for using water-boarding on prisoners. Hmmmm...

Every dead American from Iraq is on your hands.

 

[rambo117]

obama you pussy

 

[waikano]

Why are so many people voting negative on the Author of the articles first post. Looks like Tom's has a new format and that is they way it is. Don't see a need to vote negative on that, unless it's a reflection of the article.

 

[starryman]

How can we afford the MKV when the fat cats on wall street got a $700B bail out and then gave themselves bonuses and salary increases? Next thing they'll cut out is oxygen.

 

[LockPick]

Pretty stable, would be good to throw in a building, it would work like a Flash Grenade

 

[mdillenbeck]

[citation][nom]AlexTheBlue[/nom]Hey genius... Pentagon = controlled by administration. They do as they're told, they're the puppet of the government, not the other way around. Not that hard to figure out who is behind the budget cuts here, or who cut out future Raptor orders. Or who cut the public safety officers' death benefits program, for that matter.But its OK to nationalize the banks and pour hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet, only to watch in wonder as unemployment rises, despite all that hot we-must-vote-without-reading-this-bill action.[/citation]

I'm not going to argue against your right to complain against the administration, and I am not going to call you unpatriotic like those of us who argued against the Bush administration were so labeled - I hope you actually learn from your experience though and learn to empathize with the other side.

I have to ask how much government administration or military experience you have? I won't lie, I don't have much - but I know several people in both. I cannot think of ONE agency that is nothing more than a puppet of the administration. True, most take the administrations view as a major guideline and in order to accomplish their goals they will compromise. The logic of the argument that they are mere puppets doing as they are told borders on the absurd.

As to your last point about voting on a bill they didn't read, what piece of legislation are you talking about? The PATRIOT ACT, where the new revision that was printed up the night before - and still warm off the presses - was voted on versus the copy given to all to peruse first? Or are you talking about almost every piece of book-sized legislation that congress needs to consider? Think about how much you actually read - most college students don't read most of their material, most adults only skip the start of an article, most people in the USA just don't read at all!

[citation][nom]waikano[/nom]Why are so many people voting negative on the Author of the articles first post. Looks like Tom's has a new format and that is they way it is. Don't see a need to vote negative on that, unless it's a reflection of the article.[/citation]

I think all the negative votes if for a strong bias in blaming Obama's administration for this. The article does nothing to show that link. There seems to be a growing distrust of Tom's journalistic integrity due to the fact that most "news" articles have subjective conclusions written into their titles and unsupported and subjective conclusions in the article itself. Combine that with unprofessional language and people reading what they thought was news get disgruntled.

Personally, I now view much of the "news" coming out of Tom's with the same suspicion as I would view something coming from a Rush Limbaugh or Air America broadcast. Its no longer news - its now blogging via news article plagarism.

======================================================

To all the Hawks in this forum who believe the vast majority of our taxes should go to military spending and are so outraged when a drop in the bucket goes to programs you consider "socialism", how do you think I feel about my taxes as a Dove?

I see the USA talking about how we need nuclear power to secure our energy future, but if Iran pursues the same goals it is seeking to create WMDs. Ironic considering we have one of the largest arsenals, largest military budgets, shown ourselves willing to use nuclear weapons against an enemy in a time of war, and willing to take unilateral action and violate the sovereignty of other nations.

How could the MKV be seen? Put it in light of China's recent missile test to knock out a satellite, then consider how a space capable vehicle that launches multiple drones capable of independent targeting could be applied in a time of war. This thing would have been a super satellite killer - and a great threat to other nations as an offensive weapon.

Furthermore, what is the key argument to why WMDs can't be used in a time of war? MAD - mutually assured destruction, or the fact that the enemy will retaliate and wipe you out. If the US develops a system where they can destroy incoming weapons, without MAD how will that affect our views on using nuclear weapons? Can that be perceived as a threat.

After 8 years of hostility and military action that only served to destabilize the world, I am glad to see the US returning to a more diplomatic and peaceful way. True strength does not come from being the bully on the block. Using violence or threat of violence to affect political change is terrorism, and thus if the US affect change via its military might then we will, in effect, become the largest terrorist organization in existence. Also, change under duress is often fleeting.

True strength comes from community building, from getting enemies to willingly make changes without the threat of violence or invasion. I find it very symbolic that our symbol of immigration and freedom, the Statue of Liberty, was closed off after 9-11. It was almost like us saying that after a handful of radicals killed a few people that we were closing up the USA and shutting down her foundational ideas. We admitted that democracy and an open society failed, and chose to move closer to a isolationist police state. The canceling of the MKV is another strong message to the world that we wish to reenter the global community and become good global citizens once again.

So, unlike so many, I am relieved that this program was canceled. Peace through mutual agreement, not through mutually assured destruction!