Published on Tuesday, July 1, 2003 by the Guardian/UK

US-Based Missiles To Have Global Reach

Allies to become less important as new generation of weapons enables 
America to strike anywhere from its own territory by Julian Borger in 
Washington The Pentagon is planning a new generation of weapons, 
including huge hypersonic drones and bombs dropped from space, that 
will allow the US to strike its enemies at lightning speed from its 
own territory.  

Over the next 25 years, the new technology would free the US from 
dependence on forward bases and the cooperation of regional allies, 
part of the drive towards self-sufficiency spurred by the difficulties 
of gaining international cooperation for the invasion of Iraq.  

The new weapons are being developed under a program code named 
FALCON (Force Application and Launch from the Continental US).  

A US defense website has invited bids from contractors to develop the 
technology and the current edition of Jane's Defense Weekly reports 
that the first flight tests are scheduled to take place within three 
years.  

According to the website run by the Defense Advanced Research 
Projects Agency (DARPA) the program is aimed at fulfilling "the 
government's vision of an ultimate prompt global reach capability 
(circa 2025 and beyond)".  

The FALCON technology would "free the US military from reliance on 
forward basing to enable it to react promptly and decisively to 
destabilizing or threatening actions by hostile countries and terrorist 
organizations", according to the DARPA invitation for bids. The ultimate 
goal would be a "reusable hypersonic cruise vehicle (HCV) ... capable of 
taking off from a conventional military runway and striking targets 9,000 
nautical miles distant in less than two hours".

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(c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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Full article at Common Dreams ...
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0701-03.htm


Cheers, Steve..

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