Path cleared for Canada to take part in Trump’s 'Golden Dome' missile shield (ottawacitizen.com)

submitted 1 week ago by patatas@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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"Defence Minister David McGuinty visited the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters in Colorado on July 15 when he met with U.S. Gen. Gregory Guillot. McGuinty noted the government “removed all restrictions on air and missile defence of Canada” but specific details were not provided at the time.

"Defence sources, however, confirmed to the Ottawa Citizen that American officials were told that the February 2005 decision by then-prime minister Paul Martin not to join an existing U.S. missile defence system was no longer valid. At that time, the U.S. wanted Canada to join a largely unproven multi-billion dollar system which was to use ground-based interceptors to destroy incoming missiles aimed at North America."

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[-] nbailey@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 week ago

It’s kind of pointless. Reagan blew billions in this crap in the 80s and the laws of physics haven’t changed since then. The kinds of missiles that can reach North America from overseas simply can’t be reliably intercepted using terminal stage defences.

It’s not hard to take out drones, cruise missiles, short range rockets etc. Those are going Mach 1 or less. Hypersonic glide missiles hit Mach 5. ICBMs come down at Mach 25.

It’s the difference between hitting a home run and shooting down a bullet with another bullet while blindfolded.

We’d be way better off spending our time and money on diplomacy and peace so that nobody feels the need to nuke us. There’s no winning in that situation.

[-] Soup@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

The US is the kinda place that will call itself the greatest country on earth by people that also claim they need to carry a gun at all times because it’s so dangerous everywhere they go.

Looking for peace and doing preventative maintenance really isn’t their thing.

[-] rbn@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

For those of you who couldn't relate to Mach 25 etc. please find below some numbers from Wikipedia. A weapon flying with ~8km / 5mi per second is really insane to me.

Boost phase, which can last from 3 to 5 minutes. It is shorter for a solid-fuel rocket than for a liquid-propellant rocket. Depending on the trajectory chosen, typical burnout speed is 4 km/s (2.5 mi/s), up to 7.8 km/s (4.8 mi/s). The altitude of the missile at the end of this phase is typically 150 to 400 km (93 to 249 mi).

Midcourse phase, which lasts approx. 25 minutes, is sub-orbital spaceflight with the flightpath being a part of an ellipse with a vertical major axis. The apogee (halfway through the midcourse phase) is at an altitude of approximately 1,200 km (750 mi). The semi-major axis is between 3,186 and 6,372 km (1,980 and 3,959 mi) and the projection of the flightpath on the Earth's surface is close to a great circle, though slightly displaced due to earth rotation during the time of flight. In this phase, the missile may release several independent warheads and penetration aids, such as metallic-coated balloons, aluminum chaff, and full-scale warhead decoys.

Reentry/Terminal phase, which lasts two minutes starting at an altitude of 100 km; 62 mi. At the end of this phase, the missile's payload will impact the target, with impact at a speed of up to 7 km/s (4.3 mi/s) (for early ICBMs less than 1 km/s (0.62 mi/s)); see also maneuverable reentry vehicle.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercontinental_ballistic_missile