Wirt Atmar writes


John asks:

> There are kooks in the world, Wirt, and they have money, so they have
>  weapons...big weapons.  How big?  You tell me.

To build even a small IRBM even the size of the Al-Samoud missiles, which has
only a 120 mile range, the weapons that Iraq is now destroying, requires the
infrastructure and technology base of an entire nation. It cannot be
accomplished by individuals or groups. But even that level of weaponry would
only allow Columbus, OH to attack Cleveland. You're not going to get any
further than that with this level of weapon.

To build an ICBM requires the economic might of a technologically advanced,
wealthy nation and requires the efforts of thousands of engineers,
technicians and supporting organizations. Only the US and the Soviet Union
have accomplished that task so far, although with a significant ramp-up in
expenditures, the EU, China, Pakistan, India, and North Korea could possibly
do so as well, although only China and the EU are truly capable at the moment.

An organization as large as and as technically competent as Hewlett-Packard,
if it completely changed direction, would just barely have the capability of
constructing an IRBM from scratch in less than ten years. All of the
marketing and sales folks don't count in such an effort. It's the 10 or 15%
of the remaining people, the engineers and technicians that make this kind of
thing possible, along with a very strong and experienced management team.
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Looks to me that HP has already built and launched such a missile.  Unfortunately it hit CSY marketing years ago and they've never recovered from it.

Bummer

Mike Berkowitz
Guess? Inc.

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