Monday, August 18, 2014

Riddle Me This, Batman

Because what good is cheap and clean nuclear energy if you can't put it on top of a long-range ballistic missile?

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the visiting head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Sunday that Tehran will not discuss its long-range missile program as part of talks aimed at resolving a decade-long nuclear dispute, official media reported.

It makes no sense to build ICBMs if you are going to put conventional warheads on them. It is less dumb the shorter the range gets, but is still an expensive way to deliver high explosive warheads. A well-funded military could certainly use precision longer-range missiles for high-value targets, but for those less well-funded, other projects make much more sense for scarce defense spending.

Yes, we've discussed it. But the context is already-built missiles no longer needed for the nuclear role--and the rest of our military is very good. And I don't think we concluded it makes sense even with that head start financially.