U.S. and Israel Shelved Laser as a Defense

[cal04]

Ten years ago, in a preview of the current Middle East crisis, Hezbollah guerrillas fired hundreds of Katyusha rockets into Israel. The attacks prompted President Bill Clinton and the Israeli prime minister, Shimon Peres, to agree to develop a futuristic laser meant to destroy the rockets in flight.

But last September, after spending more than $300 million, the United States and Israel quietly shelved the experimental weapon, mainly because of its bulkiness, high costs and poor anticipated results on the battlefield.

“Frankly, its performance was not great,” said Penrose C. Albright, a former Pentagon official who helped initiate the project. “Under certain conditions you can make it work. But under salvo or cloudy conditions, you’ve got problems. In northern Israel, about 30 percent of the time, you’ve got a cloud deck.”

He and other military experts say the aborted project is a case study in the challenges of building antimissile weapons and the consequences of failure. Today, northern Israel remains defenseless against the Katyushas and other small rockets.




http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/world/middleeast/30laser.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[jeff30997]

1. How many peoples would $300 million feed ?

Disgusting!:grr:

[madrchsod]

2. what the bad guys are doing is very simple

they target one area and launch several missles at the same time at that target from different positions. the radar system cannot decide which launch site to target.if the system does lock on and fire the bad guys are long gone.

[bemildred]

3. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt