The Iraqi Ballistic Missile Program: The Gulf War and the Future of the Missile Threat.

Author(s):  
Gregory S. Jones
2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 879-880
Author(s):  
David Goldfischer

As Michael O'Hanlon concludes in his excellent contribution to Rockets' Red Glare: “We should…get used to the debate over ballistic missile defenses. It has been around a long time, and no final resolution is imminent” (p. 132). In one sense, a review of these three recent books makes clear that many analysts had grown a bit too used to positioning themselves in terms of the 1972 ABM Treaty. Preoccupied with arguments over whether the treaty should be preserved, modified, or rewritten in light of a changing strategic and technological context, no one seemed to have anticipated that President George W. Bush would simply withdraw from it, invoking Article XV's provision that either party could withdraw if “extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests.” Even many strategic defense supporters who deemed the treaty obsolete (as Robert Joseph persuasively maintains in his contribution to Rockets' Red Glare) generally believed that it should only—and would only—be scrapped if negotiations over U.S.-proposed changes broke down. (“The Bush Administration,” surmises O'Hanlon, “will surely try very hard to amend it before going to such an extreme”) (p. 112). In the event, the president's team disavowed even the word “negotiation,” saying they were willing only to “consult” the Russians regarding the treaty's impending demise.


Subject Hypersonic missiles and their implications. Significance Russia and China claim to have hypersonic weapons with near-global reach, capable of delivering nuclear warheads with certainty and overcoming US anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defences designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The implication is that both countries are ahead of the United States in the technology race. Impacts Hypersonic technology poses a new challenge just as the future of the New START arms treaty is due for renewal in 2021. While the Kremlin highlights future hypersonic weapons, broader procurement of new defence systems is lagging. US and Chinese designers are investigating potentially cheaper methods of accelerating artillery shells to hypersonic velocities.


1992 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Andrew Terrill

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