THAAD is a great system, but it is not 100% reliable no matter what Raytheon says. There is no system that can defeat all ICBMs that can be fired t the United States, none.
Hitting a bullet with a bullet, or using a missile to bring down an ICBM before re-entry into the atmosphere, or use a war-head or large projectile to hit an incoming ICBM IS HARD, NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE. NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE.
"How Raytheon's Technology Targets Evolving Missile Attacks"
Bruce Gellerman 24 April 2018
http://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2018/04/24/raytheon-tour-patriot-missile
"Waltham-based Raytheon is the largest producer of guided missiles in the world. And its plant in Andover, home to Integrated Defense Systems, is Raytheon's largest facility anywhere in the world."
More.
"Leading a tour of the plant is Ken Arruda, director of operations. "That's a mock-up of a Patriot GEM-T missile," Arruda says. "I can say that?"
Arruda periodically checks with two security agents who follow closely in tow. The government wants U.S. missiles, not loose lips, to sink ships.
GEM-T is the latest model of the three-decade-old Patriot missile. The ground-to-air, mobile system is made in Andover."
Be careful assessing Raytheon's promise for effectiveness of the THAAD system.
""There are ongoing conflicts in the world today that the Patriot air missile defense system is supporting today," says Thomas Laliberty, vice president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. "And we've had over 100 engagements essentially defeating those threats with [a] 100 percent success rate."
That figure is in dispute. Last year the New York Times reported a Saudi Patriot missile failed to intercept a rocket launched from Yemen.
Laliberty says he's aware of the article, but stands by the statistic he gave me.
But Jeffrey Lewis challenges that stat. He specializes in arms control issues at Middlebury College's Institute of International Studies.
"If your goal is to shoot down ballistic missiles," Lewis says, "I am still waiting for a clear-cut case where a Patriot has worked." Lewis is the author of a recent article in Foreign Policy titled, "Patriot Missiles Are Made in America and Fail Everywhere.""
"How Raytheon Aims To Detect And Fight Nuclear Weapon Threats On The Horizon"
April 25, 2018 Bruce Gellerman
http://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2018/04/25/raytheon-gmd-hypersonic-vehicles
"Raytheon plays a key role in something called Ground-Based Midcourse Defense. GMD uses a global network of land- and sea-based radars designed to detect the launch of enemy nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, to determine trajectories and targets, and then fire defensive missiles based in California and Alaska.
The idea is to slam into an enemy warhead as it travels in space, and smash it to smithereens with a kill vehicle. Basically, using a bullet to hit a bullet out of the sky. At least that's the way the $40 billion system is supposed to work."
More.
"The Pentagon is also testing unconventional weapons that could zap hypersonics out of the sky using intense blasts of microwaves, the technology Raytheon helped pioneer, and light.
"I think in the future you'll see a wider range of things like lasers and other types of directed energy-type technologies that will be brought to bear," says Raytheon's Laliberty.
But Grego, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, warns against an escalating arms race. She says any future missile defense system will only instill a false sense of security.
"So the idea is if you have a 6-foot fence protecting you, they might build a 7-foot ladder," she says, "so as you build more missile defenses your adversary will build more missiles."
Federal funding for hypersonic technologies has been only a fraction of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's budget. But there are calls to fast track spending."
