Yet again, the question must be asked: Incompetence, malevolence, or just plain lazy-assed sloth?:
Anti-missile interceptors that would be used to defend the United States against a nuclear attack from North Korea have at least one of two serious technical flaws that could leave them susceptible to experiencing "failure modes" that would result in "an interceptor fleet that would not work as intended," a Government Accountability Office report reveals.
The Pentagon was informed of the issues last summer, reports the Los Angeles Times, but postponed corrections, telling federal auditors that acting immediately would slow down an expansion of the national homeland missile defense system and interfere with the production of new interceptors.
Translation: These anti-missile interceptors had already been purchased, and the Obamagon feared that they wouldn't be allowed the funding to buy replacements, so they made due with what they had, even if they're now reduced to $40 billion worth of Roman candles..
And now, all of the thirty-three interceptors that are deployed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, and at Fort Greely, Alaska, have one of the defects. Ten of those same interceptors, as well as eight more being prepared for delivery at some point this year, have both defects, reports the Times.
The flaws, said the GAO, could disrupt systems that are used to steer the interceptors toward incoming enemy missiles. Four of the rockets are at Vandenberg, and twenty-nine are at Fort Greely, and make up the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, system. [emphasis added]
Terrific. So instead of their being scrapped as "warmongering" and "provocative" and "unnecessary" in the Era of Kumbayah that President Peacepipe has ushered in, this handful of anti-ICBM interceptors simply don't work. And just in time, too. Which is probably why O didn't bother scrapping them.
Now I'm not an expert on advanced electronic weaponry and ballistics and such, nor do I play one on television, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but does this not sound to you like it would be a relatively easy fix?:
One of the flaws, the report reveals, is in the wiring harnesses in the kill vehicles. An unsuitable soldering material was used in harnesses in at least ten of the interceptors that remain part of the fleet after they were deployed in 2009 and 2010.
The material is insufficient, the report said, because it is vulnerable to corrosion in the damp underground silos, and could hinder the harnesses' ability to supply power and data to the kill vehicles guidance systems.
I don't know if it's as easy as popping open a hatch and re-soldering the wiring harnesses or if it's one of those pain-in-the-ass situations where you have to tear apart the whole warhead to get at it and then reassemble it all, with the possibility or likelihood of other components getting damaged in the process, any more than the other defective component - called a divert thruster - is plug & play or a plumber's nightmare to uninstall and install.
What I do know is that the manufacturer - Boeing - dutifully informed the Obamagon about the defects as soon as they were discovered, and the Regime's blithe, what-me-worry? response is that "Everything will be fine" and they have no plans to fix either of the defective components, one or the other or both of which is in all thirty-three interceptors that are supposed to be the only thing standing between millions of American civilians and hellish, fiery death, but will instead wind up to be about as useful as Fourth of July hand sparklers.
So you tell me: Incompetence, malevolence, or just plain lazy-assed sloth? And into which category does "just doesn't give a rat's ass" most logically fall?
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