As a politico-turned-editor-turned-musician-turned-whatever-the-hell-I-do-now, I’ve got no beef with guys who switch careers. But former jocks who explain everything in terms of sports? They really make me laugh — especially when what they’re trying to explain is missile defense.
For example: Former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Riki Ellison, who now serves as Star Wars’ chief cheerleader, in his role as the president of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
The [missile] launcher is a quarterback. Whats the best way to stop the quarterback from throwing the ball? he tells The Hill. You use your defensive linemen. If you can tackle him before he launches the ball, theres not a threat. Thats what we call our boost-phase defense.
The San Jose Mercury-News — which, apparently, isn’t afraid to mangle a sports reference either — assures us that Riki’s “background, combined with more than two decades studying the issue, makes him a unique pitchman for missile defense. He attacks the issue with the same intensity that made him a favorite of teammates and fans during his playing days with the 49ers.“
And what is that background, you ask?
Ellison earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations, along with an honors certificate in defense and strategic studies in 1983… [When] his football career ended in 1992… Ellison went into marketing for the [now-defunct] United Missile Defense Co., a joint venture pursuing missile-defense contracts. He formed the MDAA in 2002.
“I think defense wins championships,” Ellison says, displaying his years of sophisticated analysis of this complex issue. “A great defense gives you the ability to win, the ability to protect.“
So true. And of course, as NFL.com noted, “when it comes to finding someone who knows more than his fair share about defense, Riki Ellison is your man. And we’re not just talking DE-fense, but de-FENSE.”
Actually I was thinking that bribing the opposition to take a dive is the cheaper strategy, at least in the short term, while the smart folk work out something more lasting.
In the meantime my support, such as it is, for missile defense is more along the lines of support for anything that might help push us off-planet on a permanent basis. I don’t care why we scatter, just so long as we do.
Steve,
Exactly how is a nonfunctioning missile defense system supposed to dave us from the threats you mention?
In the 80’s and 90’s I worked on ABM/missile tests and Early Warning radars for the Air Force, 2 of which are to be used in what is called a missile defense system. Neither radar is up to the job and the targeting radar has not even been developed yet. So if you think diplomacy be damned you are pretty short sighted.
As for the likelihood of someone launching a ICBM to the CONUS, you should know this is the part that is more difficult than the nuclear weapon.
Also I don’t understand all the disparaging remarks on people’s country of origin or political affiliation. Can’t you just have a thoughtful comment on the subject of missile defense? When this guy was playing football I was working at an MIT defense lab and AirForce early warning radars.
I say that if our defense is truly not feasible, then we need to rely on our offense. How could we do such a thing and not face world condemnation? Here is one strategy. Take a page out of Pakistan’s playbook. We can just blame it on some rouge General that takes unauthorized control of a missle silo or two, and gives the order to launch. Our enemies are destroyed, and the General is court martialed. Of course the General is terminally ill anyway, and expires before he can face the firing squad.
We promise the world that it will never happen again, and hopefully it won’t be necessary. Surely not all will believe that the act was not sanctioned by the commander in chief, but many of those doubters would doubt we have the right to defend ourselves either.
Maybe I’ve just revealed the plot of the next Tom Clancy novel. Hopefully he’ll cut me in on a portion of the royalties? I won’t hold my breath.
Not subtle for Ellison to be a company man who will profit from the hardware. If there is ever a thousand years of peace, it will rest on the impossibility of anyone profiting from creating a fear and them creating arms to allay that fear.
Jeff,
I appreciate your thoughtful presentation. I still have to wonder why SDI,BMD,NMD supporters always have to attack political affiliations when discussing this issue.
I worked on these systems though 2 reagan terms, one bush sr term and one clinton term. You know what I noticed was different, nothing. They all had inherently unworkable systems and pie in the sky plans for the future.
I also agree that boost phase is the only viable option. I disagree on Aegis, with a standard-3 is not going to be effective because the number of close to ocean launch locations is minimal and it has the same expensive nature of the PAC-3.
My biggest question would be who all these nations are with ICBMs? And of these nations with this capability who are our enemies? ICBMs are the least likely means of attach because of the cost of development and its difficulty. For this reason I think our outsized budget on this front is misplaced. Even being out of the industry for 9 years I doubt the number is larger than the last intel briefing I had.
“Even being out of the industry for 9 years I doubt the number is larger than the last intel briefing I had.“
Nine years later, and you think nothing has changed? I suppose that makes perfect sense since nine years ago we didn’t arm Predators, weren’t using the Global Hawk or the Stryker, didn’t have any IED countermeasures, hadn’t fielded the Super Hornet, hadn’t produced the F/A-22, didn’t use JDAMS (!!), etc.
That’s the difference between the Falklands War and Desert Storm.
But then I wasn’t talking about a ground war was I? We are talking about a nuclear warhead attached to an ICBM which we wish to shoot down with an ABM system. The three most technically complex things you can attempt. With billions of dollars and years of we can still have things blow up on the launch pad or fail to even deploy. This is where I think we are truly wasting our effort. The things you mentioned are still what a war comes down to, tactical battles with standoff measures not long range nuclear war.
RC:
Point taken
RC:
P.S. I wasnt saying that you where a janitor, I just was wondering what you experience was as I was trying to discern what disciplines you utilized to derive your conclusion.
As for what I was referring to by Radar Cup meaning the range of detection that a series of radars afford not the actual physical attributes of the radar
Dear Jeff,
when you write: “SCUD-C cost per launch — 100,000 $” do you intend to say that the cost of a single Scud C missile is $ 100.000 ? If Yes can you quote a credible source?
best
Arieh Stav
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