(Bloomberg Opinion) -- This month, an intercontinental ballistic missile was fired in the general direction of the Hawaiian islands. During its descent a few minutes later, still outside the earth’s atmosphere, it was struck by another missile that destroyed it.
With that detonation, the world’s tenuous nuclear balance suddenly threatened to come out of kilter. The danger of atom bombs being used again was already increasing. Now it’s grown once more.
The ICBM flying over the Pacific was an American dummy designed to test a new kind of interceptor technology. As it flew, satellites spotted it and alerted an Air Force base in Colorado, which in turn communicated with a Navy destroyer positioned northeast of Hawaii. This ship, the USS John Finn, fired its own missile which, in the jargon, hit and killed the incoming one.
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WNU Editor: I lived through the Cold War. I have trouble accepting the above author's point of view that because both sides had the capability of destroying each other, this was an era of "nuclear stability". I also do not share his view that developments in anti-missile defenses will now usher in an era of nuclear instability. I see these developments as a God-send against rogue nations like Iran and North Korea. The above author also ignores the inconvenient truth that the US is not the only country developing such systems. Russia is already testing and deploying such systems .... Russia's Military Has Successfully Tested It's Modernized Anti-Ballistic Missile System (November 26, 2020).
