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The suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon seem to have strengthened
as opposed to weakened the prospects for the American missile
defense plan. Although it would not have prevented the kind
of assaults that occurred in New York and Washington on September
11, 2001, the United States appear to adhere to ballistic missile
defense as a centerpiece of American national security planning.
The Bush administration intends to proceed with missile defense
deployment as soon as technologically possible, while arms control
advocates dismiss the whole idea as dangerous, non-effective
and costly. After the tens of billions of dollars spend since
the 1980s, missile defense is still a question-ridden response
to the threat of a long-range ballistic missile attack against
the U.S. homeland.
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- Introduction
Outlines the main course since the missile defense
revival, starting with President Reagan's controversial Strategic
Defense Initiative.
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- The Missile Threat
Threat analyses from U.S. intelligence and
Pentagon sources, independent panel reports, including the
1998 Rumsfeld-Report, and Congressional documents.
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- Missile Defense Technology and
Costs
The Welch Panel reports, Annual Defense Reports, BMDO
documents, Deployment Readiness Review; National Defense Authorization
Acts, Missile Defense Resolutions and Committee reports; CBO
and GAO technical and budgetary assessments; the Postol letters.
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- Political Impact
Includes subsections on international responses, the
ABM Treaty and consequences of the U.S. missile defense plans
on other arms control treaties.
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- Links
Official and non-governmental Internet sources on
missile defense.
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