Comment on Trump unveils plans for 'Golden Dome' missile shield for US
itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
For a nuclear armed country, a robust missile defense system is a first strike enabling weapon. It means you can first strike a peer adversary without fearing MAD. This is a dangerous development.
I see what you’re saying, but it’s pretty naive to assume that a) there isnt a defense mechanism already in place and that b) other players wouldn’t so exactly the same if given the chance.
My guess is the only reason. China and Russia aren’t doing the same is because they already have and it would be silly to come out clean while Trump tries to provoke WW3 so he can get cheao hotels on nuclear glass plains.
There are missile defenses, but not nearly enough to counter China’s, let alone Russia’s, full arsenal. Superpowers want to have enough weapon’s to overwhelm their adversaries’ missile defenses. The perverse calculation of MAD is that while both can destroy each other, no one attacks. But if one country thinks they can survive a retaliation, suddenly nuclear is on the table.
The only logical (if perverse) reaction to your adversary building missile defenses, is to build more missiles. This is a route to escalation. This has been extensively studied during the cold war, and is no less true now: amacad.org/…/understanding-chinese-and-russian-vi…
And missile defenses are way, way more expensive and technologically burdensome than missiles. So no, I don’t think that Russia nor China have large scale defenses, for now.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We already have multiple layers of ballistic missile defense in place, so this whole thing is just even dumber than usual for this admin.