时间： 2013年10月13日  星期日   14:20—15:30

地点：新主楼B328

报告题目：U.S. Ballistic Missile Defenses

报 告 人：George Lewis

报告内容简介：

The United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2001 in order to begin deployment of a nationwide ballistic missile defense system.  This resulting system, known as the Ground-Based Midcourse (GMD) system, achieved an initial operational capability in 2004.  Now, more than ten tears after deployment began, the core of the GMD system is nearly complete and the emphasis of the U.S. missile program has shifted to the development and deployment of regional defenses, such as the one being developed under President Obama’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA).  Ultimately, the objective is to merge the GMD and these regional defense systems into a single, integrated global Ballistic Missile Defense System.

However, despite numerous proclamations about its effectiveness, the GMD system is deeply flawed.  It has interceptors that are both unreliable and highly expensive, a very sparse and poor test record, and most importantly, a neglected sensor infrastructure that lacks discrimination capabilities.  These problems cannot be fixed short of simply deploying a largely new system.  Although the EPAA is still early in its development, it is showing some of the same tendencies that led to the current situation with the GMD, particularly with regard to its sensor infrastructure.  This talk will, from a somewhat technical perspective, describe the current state of the GMD system, attempt to explain how it got into its current state, and assess the extent to which the GMD experience might have lessons for EPAA. 

报告人简介：

     George Lewis is a Senior Research Associate at the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Cornell University.  He has a Ph.D. in experimental solid state physics from Cornell’s Physics Department.  Prior to returning to Cornell in 2005, he was in the Technology and Security Group of M.I.T.’s Security Studies Program for 16 years. Dr. Lewis is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a recipient of its Joseph A. Burton Forum Award, a former member of its Panel on Physics and Public Affairs (POPA) and a former Chair of the Forum on Physics and Society.  He is an Associate Editor of the journal Science and Global Security.  His research has included studies of arms control and verification for sea-launched cruise missiles and other non-strategic nuclear weapons, air and space surveillance and early warning systems, the effectiveness of ballistic missiles and of defenses against such missiles, and security issues involving outer space, and his current work focuses on the last two topics.  His blog on missile defense issues (mostly) is at www.mostlymissiledefense.com.