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Page 1 of 5 An Introduction to Missile Defence
The United States is leading the world in missile defence development.
All other Missile Defence systems under development are in
collaboration with the United States. It is the US system that will
have the global reach and it's the US system that will cause by far the
most instability. Yorkshire CND campaigns against all missile defence
systems by any country. However, currently, the US system and its
control of development of all other systems, is the biggest threat. It
is likely to remain so for the forseeable future. As such, many of the
examples taken and explanations of the system refer to the US system.
“If you look at world history, ever since men began waging war, you
will see that there's a permanent race between sword and shield. The
sword always wins. The more improvements that are made to the shield,
the more improvements are made to the sword.”
(French President Jaques Chirac, New York Times on December 17 2000)
What is Missile Defence?
Missile Defence, or “Star Wars” as it's sometimes known, was first
dreamt up by President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980's and
the version that is currently being developed is a toned down version
of the same plan.
The idea is that with a system of satellites in space and radar bases,
listening stations and interceptor missiles on the ground across the
globe, the United States will be able to find, monitor and shoot down
missiles that are fired at their country and allied countries.
Military spying and monitoring stations dotted across the globe,
including two in Yorkshire, are key to finding and tracking the
missiles as they travel towards their targets. Once the co-ordinates
are confirmed US Interceptor missiles would fire at the incoming
missiles to blow them out of the sky - sometimes likened to hitting a
bullet with a bullet.
Other options for intercepting missiles being considered and developed
include the use of Air-borne lasers on Boeing 747s and space-based
lasers on satellites.
In June 2002 the USA withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty -
a bilateral treaty between the USA and Russia. That withdrawal, which
killed the treaty off, allowed the the USA to push full steam ahead
with missile defence.
Star Wars is no longer just fiction.
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Campaigns 
