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US Defense spending...and Israel....

  • 06-12-2001 2:54pm
    #1
    bonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,443 ✭✭✭✭


    Given that there's been quite a lot of doscussion about US/Israeli relations recently, I thought the following might be interesting.

    Slashdot have a link to an article by Fox News concerning the joint US / Israeli venture into battlefield lasers - ostensibly for defensive purposes.

    A quick check reveals that this appears to indeed be genuine.

    Now, what has this to do with politics?

    Well, first of all, I find it interesting that the US are working on brand-spanking new tech which they arent just keeping to themselves, or looking to "license" it to other countries.

    More interestingly is their partner...Israel.

    Why is this interesting?

    Well, first of all, it once more highlights the incredible ties between the US and Israel - ties far stronger than can be accredited to "US support of the only democracy in the region".

    More interestingly, however, is this excerpt from the military link above :
    In July 1996, a contract was awarded by U.S. Army SMDC to TRW, Inc., of Redondo Beach, Calif., for design, development and fabrication of a transportable, tactical-sized THEL demonstrator

    Now....lets look at this...

    1) The US is allegedly trying to cut its defensive budget.
    2) The US wants to develop massively expensive laser tech...again.
    3) The US gives billions in military aid to Israel every year, and from what I can recall, approximately 40% of the non-military aid is also spent by Israel back in the US on military kit.

    So....

    The US is giving Israel money in the form of foreign aid, which the Israeli's then hand back to the US government, who then invest it into a US company to develop this new tech.

    Bottom line - the US is, in effect, paying for everything, but manages to defer a chunk of the cost out of its military budget, and into its foreign aid budget. Its a double-win, because the "foreign aid" money they are handing out is coming straigh back to a US industry, creating US jobs. Exactly how is this foreign aid?????

    jc

    As an aside, this development, if successful, will change the face of modern warfare more than any other invention since the airplane, as far as I can see.

    Planes and helicopters will become practically obsolete. You cannot jam or dodge a laser blast, and as long as you can be seen, you can be hit. Air superiority could become a thing of the past, at least until some form of armour is created to withstand such a weapon. Hell, even stealth planes could be shot down by a bloke on the back of a flat-bed truck who has a manually-sighted laser.

    Yes, I am aware of the problems with atmospheric attenuation in lasers. I am also aware that the tests to date ahve managed to shoot down several missiles, and therefore indicate that the problem is at least partially solved


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