Missile defense costs $10 billion a year. What do we get for that?

Posted on: Jan. 24th, 2006 || Source: niemanwatchdog.org | E-mail Article | Print Article

Missile defense costs $10 billion a year. What do we get for that?

Expert Philip Coyle notes that successes have been only under artificial circumstances and that in the two most recent tests interceptors didn't even get off the ground; he urges Congress and the press to question the system.

Under the administration of President George W. Bush, the Department of Defense has been spending about $10 billion per year on missile defense. The President's goal is to be able to shoot down enemy missiles of all types - short range, medium range, and intercontinental ballistic missiles - with interceptors launched from land, from sea, from aircraft and from space. It's called a layered defense. The idea is that if one layer misses the next one won't. Pentagon briefings picture the United States covered by a series of overlapping glass domes, and we are meant to imagine that enemy missiles will bounce off those domes like hail off a windshield.

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