From Popular Mechanics:
In accelerated efforts to isolate Iran, the Obama administration has given hint to a change in America's ballistic missile defense system plans. President Obama told reporters on Tuesday that in a letter to Russia, he said that “lessening Iran’s commitment to nuclear weapons…reduces the pressure for, or need for, a missile-defense system.” Although world leaders deny a quid pro quo, the implicit deal would seem to guarantee assistance in dealing with Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions in exchange for a cessation of US plans to build interceptor missiles silos in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic. Last summer, we looked at how the evolving U.S. plans aimed at rogue regimes were fueling tensions with Russia.
The U.S. ballistic missile defense shield has been up and running since 2004, and it's growing. If an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) were fired at the United States, there would be as many as 24 ground-based interceptors (GBIs) ready to fire at it from Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. One or more of these 60-ft.-long, three-stage missiles could be boosted into space, guided by an array of space and terrestrial-based radar systems directed toward the incoming threat. For each GBI's payload—a 140-pound, remote-operated spacecraft called a kill vehicle—this would be a suicide mission. If everything went according to plan, the kill vehicle's four onboard thrusters would slide it directly into the path of the enemy missile and—relying on nothing more than its mass and 20,000-plus mph velocity—the drone would pulverize its target into orbital debris.
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My Comment: A long but detailed summary of U.S. missile defense plans. A must read article.
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