The object of a system of authority is order, not justice. Justice matters only after injustice sufficiently compromises order.

  • 0 Posts
  • 30 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: August 8th, 2023

help-circle






  • The math and physics problems of SDI (Reagan’s Star Wars) hasn’t changed.

    42 years of engineering evolution means we can build things now that were impossible back then. The US Army’s DE M-SHORAD and the British Dragonfire, two different High Energy Laser Systems that are already in production, are examples.

    The US now has space based quantum sensing systems for God’s sake. That shit was literally unimaginable in 1983!

    “Quantum Radar” would have been straight Science Fiction back then and yet at least the US and Australia have already built test systems for it.

    The Scientists and Engineers of 1983, even the ones working on SDI, would likely have told you that the SmartPhone in your pocket right now was impossible and could never be built. The screen alone would have had them cumming in their pants and the camera system and processing power in the thing would have blown their minds.

    SDI was a long time ago. May as well compare a 1983 Chevy to a 2025 LUCID EV.


  • The “Golden Dome” system is almost certainly more bullshit from Trump not because it’s infeasible but because we can’t afford to build it. At least not right now.

    What Trump is pitching is the same snake oil Reaganite “Star Wars” program that was scrapped 30 years ago.

    SDI never really ended and research on the core technologies continue to this day. Things like Patriot and NIKE came out of the program some 20 years ago and we’re now starting to get the energy weapon systems that Reagan envisioned.

    The Israeli Iron Dome can’t beat Yemeni intercontinental bottle rockets, nevermind Iranian SCUD missiles.

    Iron Dome does an amazingly good job at defending from the threats it was designed to handle. It wasn’t meant to deal with MRBM or ICBM threats.

    These programs don’t meaningfully protect a country that is under bombardment.

    Effective defense from MRBM and ICBM attack has been technically possible for nearly two decades however installing a GBMD system of that size would bankrupt the United States several times over. The missiles it uses are a hundred million a piece if IIRC and we’d need tens of thousands of them.

    What’s changed is that Ground Based Directed Energy Weapons of sufficient power, a direct result of SDI, to interdict ICBMS will be available in the near future. The US Military is already fielding lower power systems like the DE M-SHORAD and everyone from Lockheed to Raytheon has 1MW (or higher) GBDEW systems starting testing this year.

    Hell the British already have their Dragonfire system, rated at 300KW, not only built but scheduled to be put on Navy Vessels in 2027 and the US Navy has had a system like this for nearly a decade already.

    The fantasy of missile defense only escalates these conflicts.

    Missile defense isn’t a fantasy, the short range version has been around for a long while now. Medium and Long Range has been possible for two decades it’s just been wildly unaffordable at scale. That is about to change.