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

Published: Jan 24, 2006
Source: niemanwatchdog.org



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.continue..