Air Force Laying Groundwork for Early NMD??
Your Humble Correspondent begs to draw the gentle reader's attention to two
of the items under CONTRACTS, to wit, COBRA GEMINI and the Clear
Radar Upgrade. Whilst one would not wish to place too fine a point on the
matter, one cannot help but notice that these initiatives would seem to
possibly have some passing resemblence to the components that are mentioned
by the Air Force as candidates for their NMD early deployment option [ie,
X-band and Upgraded Early Warning radars].
One may also recall that the Poker Flat Rocket Range in Alaska, which is
not too far [as they measure things in Alaska] down the road from Clear,
has been the subject recently of some initiatives, not unconnected to the
ever vigilant Sen. Stevens, to enable it to launch larger rockets, such as
those that might be required for NMD interceptors. And in this connection
it is helpful to recall that the Clinton 3+3 NMD plan envisions an option
under which a second site would be constructed in Alaska, to provide
enhanced coverage against the ever.pesky DPRK [should such a state entity,
in the fullness of time, still exist].
At a minimum, it might be interesting to understand the extent to which the
Air Force is of the view that these various initiatives potentially
contribute to the expeditious deployment of a limited NMD system, the
extent to which any of these initiatives has been guided by such
considerations, and the extent to which the boyz in green down in
Huntsville think that the boyz in blue are trying to pull a fast one by
putting in place some non-trivial fraction of the infrastructure [say,
everything but the kill-vehicles] that might be required for the Air Force
to be the lead service on NMD deployment, for instance..... The whole world
wants to know .....
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