Long-time space-based missile defense advocate Lowell Wood, officially a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been talking up the Brilliant Pebbles concept that he pushed during the better part of my elementary school years.
Wood was at the Capitol Hill Club for an event sponsored by the American Foreign Policy Council and the Marshall Institute. Sharon Weinberger at Defense Daily summarizes Wood’s talk (subscription only, I am afraid).
Wood’s presentation was entitled “Ballistic Missile Defense in an Ideal World”.
Wood’s “ideal world” is one, presumably, where the laws of physics are substantially relaxed. One of his slides caught my eye:
Total life-cycle cost to the Nation to own the Brilliant Pebbles defensive system was $11 B $11 B (89 $)
CAIG-validated, DoD-certified-to-Congress cost estimate
Tight consensus of 3 from the bottom up cost-estimation projects
All RDT&E, all production-&-deployment; 2 decades ops
Total deployed constellation of 2000 Pebbles
Worst-case GPALS threat: Typhoon salvo-launching off Bermuda
Clearly met Reagans ..impotent and obsolete.. spec for the SDI
Higher cost estimates come from critics-&-opponents
Manifestly, professional nafs ?Will you believe this?!?
Whatever you think of the critics, the American Physical Society and Congressional Budget Office (1996, 2002 and 2004) are not staffed by “professional nafs.“
Of all people to hurl this charge, Dr. Wood is not the person with the most credibility.
His days pimping the X-Ray laser remain a source of controversy. Worse, in my view, the technically savy Dr. Wood encrypted his .pdf file — something that took me three seconds to defeat with Elcomsoft.
Let’s hope Brilliant Pebbles fares better than Wood’s encryption when dealing with adversary countermeasures.
– posted by Jeffrey Lewis.
It’s a terrible idea that won’t die, both because it’s a money maker and because the egos of guys like this are invested in it.
Dr. Strangelove rides again!
Bravo, Dr. Wood. Good ideas, technical feasibility, and solid strategic vision remain your hallmark. The country needs more of this.
This pebbles has been talked about since the early 1990’s.
If these people couldnt develop it in 10 years since it has been conveived, they probably arent qualified to do so.
Its a good idea, but its also a common sense idea. And doesnt automatically mean they should receive funding or are brilliant.
But if pebbles worked perfect, it would be a good compliment to a ground based missile interceptor type defense system.
But what if people shoot things from space, their idea is directed to missiles that could fly in “earths orbit range”.
What is Russia or China already has nuclear missiles floating around million of miles away from Earth ready to launch back at the Earth from a sort of autonomous remote space station.
THen this system would fail.
The idea is not a bad idea, it is simply the lack of competing technological innovations that give it longevity. The US is experiencing a serious brain-gap. All those hours on the web, in front of the TV or on the X-box instead of the drawing boards will eventually do the US in. Old creative ideas have an ever-longer shelf life. Such explains the remaking of 30 year old tv shows into films. Creativity is stifled by pacification. Technology users and widespread scientific ignoarance in the US go hand-in-hand.
Space Based weapons have a few advantages.
1-Mantinence is nill. But there is always the problem with mis-firing. For instance, durig any armor traing there is that possibility of a complete failure on both;
a. The powder primer and;
b. the electrical firing mechanism.
2-But in non-essential targeting or low-prioity target, this method would be the best to advert any danger to U.S. troops with no need to enter that arena of battle.
* Eletronic Warfare (such a the PREDATOR drone) has proved more than a useful tool in combat. But we may at times to fail to recognize what we tend to call ‘Dug-in’ troops. Fortified positions will forever require:
SEALs
Delta Force, including al of the 1st Special Ops.
And just well trained soldiers. *
Chris Werkshage
Looking to tan soon.
Brooklyn, New York.