Trump's Proposed Missile Defense System Is a Weapon of Mass Insecurity

"Kathryn Bigelow's new nuclear thriller, A House of Dynamite, has been criticized by some experts for being unrealistic, most notably because it portrays an unlikely scenario in which an adversary chooses to attack the United States with just a single nuclear-armed missile. Such a move would, of course, leave the vast American nuclear arsenal largely intact and so invite a devastating response that would undoubtedly largely destroy the attacker's nation."

"The United States has, in fact, spent more than $350 billion on missile defenses since, more than four decades ago, President Ronald Reagan promised to create a leak-proof defense against incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Believe it or not, the Pentagon has yet to even conduct a realistic test of the system, which would involve attempting to intercept hundreds of warheads traveling at 1,500 miles per hour, surrounded by realistic decoys that would make it hard to even know which objects to target."

The film depicts repeated U.S. interceptor failures and highlights serious reliability problems in current missile-defense systems. U.S. interceptors have failed nearly half their tests, prompting concern over performance versus cost. More than $350 billion has been spent on missile defenses since President Reagan's promise of a leak-proof shield against ICBMs. The Pentagon has not conducted realistic tests that simulate intercepting hundreds of warheads at high speed while discriminating against realistic decoys. Current testing and capabilities create substantial uncertainty about the ability of technology to prevent or mitigate a major nuclear attack.

Read at Truthout