----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Baker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 4:31 PM Subject: Re: Missile Defense in a New Strategic Environment
> Dan said: > > > Basically, the US has stated that it will not deploy a sufficently > > large ABM system to stop an attack by China or Russia. As long as this > > is understood as a valid statement, there is no real inducement for > > either country to build many more weapons. > > According to the FAS nuclear archive at > > http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/icbm/index.html > > the People's Republic of China has only twenty ICBMs (which don't have > MIRVs). It seems to me that any ABM system that isn't capable of > handling an all-out attack using those twenty ICBMs isn't really of any > value. > > Rich > GCU Your Mileage May Vary > But, the same source quotes hundreds of nuclear bombs. They certainly have enough regional missiles to remove Japan and India from the map now. They also have plans, already in place, to add to their missile capacity. So, if they upped their missiles to 100, and put some of their hundreds of bombs on these missiles, they should be able to have the capacity to penetrate the shield. I obtained my numbers from http://www.blueprint-magazine.de/blue_7/defense.htm but the FAS numbers are similar. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
