- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ca
- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ca
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/44616333
President Donald Trump left out a key detail this week when he outlined his plans for a massive missile and air defense shield over the continent: He can’t build it without Canada.
Ottawa has historically funded about 40 percent of NORAD investments, according to VanHerck, and is putting $38 billion into the command to add new radars in the north over the next two decades. Without those investments — and additional sensors that can peer over the North Pole — officials believe the U.S. will have trouble putting together a credible North American air defense.
Historically, this has been an easy sell. If the US gets nuked, Canada is just as fucked. Canada was happy to host US early warning radar throughout the Cold War.
The fact that it’s not an easy sell now highlights how bad Trump is at everything. You never needed The Art of the Deal to set this up in the past.
Canada can still do it. Just, now, the US will bankroll the build and pull data from Canadian gear.
… As long as they play nice and pay their bills.
That’s bcz the art of the deal is a lie The Apprentice show sold everyone to make Trump look like an intelligent business person. They’re probably half the reason MAGA people think he’s a genius businessman.
The other half is they perceive him as a gangster, and they like gangsters.
They like white gangsters. Insert Family Guy “OKAY” vs. “NOT OKAY” skin tone sign.
When he ‘wrote’ the book he did an unbelievably bad deal with the co-author. That guy got his name on the cover and half the royalties. He’s never stopped talking about what a chump Donnie is.
NOW yesterday’s posts about Trump being “in talks” with Canada make sense.
This system is a ridiculous boondoggle anyway, but Trump thinks it’s vital. Canada, you’ve got Trump by the balls. Don’t waste this opportunity!
What Trump is pitching is the same snake oil Reaganite “Star Wars” program that was scrapped 30 years ago. The Israeli Iron Dome can’t beat Yemeni intercontinental bottle rockets, nevermind Iranian SCUD missiles. These programs don’t meaningfully protect a country that is under bombardment. They’re wingnut welfare for the MIC and always have been.
The only successful nuclear deterrent was detente. JFK picking up a telephone and telling Khruschev “We’ll pull our Jupiter Missiles out of Turkey if you pull your missile out of Cuba” saved the world from nuclear annihilation. The fantasy of missile defense only escalates these conflicts.
The “Golden Dome” system is almost certainly more bullshit from Trump not because it’s infeasible but because we can’t afford to build it. At least not right now.
SDI never really ended and research on the core technologies continue to this day. Things like Patriot and NIKE came out of the program some 20 years ago and we’re now starting to get the energy weapon systems that Reagan envisioned.
Iron Dome does an amazingly good job at defending from the threats it was designed to handle. It wasn’t meant to deal with MRBM or ICBM threats.
Effective defense from MRBM and ICBM attack has been technically possible for nearly two decades however installing a GBMD system of that size would bankrupt the United States several times over. The missiles it uses are a hundred million a piece if IIRC and we’d need tens of thousands of them.
What’s changed is that Ground Based Directed Energy Weapons of sufficient power, a direct result of SDI, to interdict ICBMS will be available in the near future. The US Military is already fielding lower power systems like the DE M-SHORAD and everyone from Lockheed to Raytheon has 1MW (or higher) GBDEW systems starting testing this year.
Hell the British already have their Dragonfire system, rated at 300KW, not only built but scheduled to be put on Navy Vessels in 2027 and the US Navy has had a system like this for nearly a decade already.
Missile defense isn’t a fantasy, the short range version has been around for a long while now. Medium and Long Range has been possible for two decades it’s just been wildly unaffordable at scale. That is about to change.
So did the Maginot Line
The most conservative estimate I’ve seen for the IDs intercept rate is 80% and many sources claim 90% or even 95%. I’m am not a fan of the Israeli Government but its beyond question that the ID system does an excellent job at countering the threat it was designed to handle.
I think the latest understanding of the impacts from the calibre of nuclear weapons we have now is if anyone is nuked we are all fucked regardless of location but sadly that doesn’t seem like enough of a deterrent :/
You’re misunderstanding it. Everyone can make a safe deal. The art is fucking it up.