This Escalating Arms Race !

When the United States and the Soviet Union first faced off against each other shortly after the end of the second world war the means of delivering atomic weapons was the bomber.  Both sides had gathered German scientists involved in Hitler's V2 rocket programme and that was the start of what became a race to perfect intercontinental ballistic missiles.

That seemed the ultimate weapon.   By the time the Soviet Union imploded both sides were in instant nuclear readiness and those missiles were impossible to pin point because they were capable of being fired underwater from opposing submarine fleets.  We had arrived at what was known as the " MAD doctrine " - Mutually Assured Destruction in the event of war.

For a time it seemed that peace was on the horizon. Mikhael Gorbachov was the new leader of Russia and that was an era of several treaties that stood down nuclear weapons, but when Vladimir Putin rose to power the animosity was revived and we are now in a new arms race to gain the advantage of taking the art of warfare into space.

Russia is now crowing that it has perfected what is termed a " space glider "  capable of eluding missile defences because it travels at hypersonic speed and has the agility to swiftly change direction in flight.  It is claimed that this is composed of newly created composite materials that can withstand temperatures of 2000 Celsius.  There is the prospect that such a system could evade all known forms of missile defence.

Donald Trump recently threatened to develop space warfare and it is likely that a similar system is well advanced in the American arms industry. Russia has named its weapon the  "Avanguard " and claims it can travel at twenty times the speed of sound.   The weapon is launched into space with a rocket and in glider form it returns to earth to destroy multiple targets.

It seems to be an act of imbecility that two of the most powerful nations on earth are engaged in an arms race to develop weapons that would destroy each other at a time when the very existence of planet Earth is in question.  Air pollution is sending global temperatures to catastrophic levels and ever rising population numbers threaten to exceed the food supply.   The measures to avoid these problems are not being taken because world politicians fear the backlash from the public because of the inconvenience they would cause.

There seems the prospect that if global warming alters rain patterns to create a world food shortage we will see migration in the biblical scale and powerful nations may use these weapons to defend their borders.  It is ironical that the money this world spends on the production of military weapons would quickly solve the problems facing planet Earth.

Of course, the human race is too stupid to grasp such logic !