On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 13:49:40 GMT, Fred J. McCall
wrote:

(phil hunt) wrote:

:On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 05:26:01 GMT, Kevin Brooks wrote:


:Sorm Shadow/Scalp are already enjoying export success because the
:rest of the world can't do a better job on their own--the only way they get
:any capability like what you refer to is by buying from those western
:industries you rather prematurely wrote off.
:
:This is true for now. How long will it be? I predict that within 10
:years, many countries will be producing missiles with roughly the
:same capabilities as Storm Shadow, but at much less cost.

I predict you're probably wrong.

You know, if it was as easy as you seem to think, my life would
certainly be a lot easier.

Phil misses the point, that most of the third world jsut doesn't
have the capabilities he's looking for. Even nations like China are
still importing weapons systems, not because they're stupid or mud
huts, but because the infrastructure to develop systems like this
takes a long, LONG time to develop.
You need to institutionalize an engineering and R&D capability, and
I don't mean hiring a few graduates from Cal-tech. I mean being able
to say: "We have an idea...let out some contracts and have Lockheed,
BAE, etc put together teams and offer bids".
That's the real obstacle-- not in coming up with a magic weapons
design, but in producing the people who can design it, and more
importantly, *build* it, which requires an educated and at least
reasonably prosperous nation to build it.
Again, China is probably one of the most capable of the 2-3rd
teir nations, and they needed foreign help for their orbital rocket
shot. I'm not mocking them-- it was a tremendous achievement,
especially when you consider everything they've had to overcome in the
20th century, but the fact of the matter was that they still needed
some outside knowledge/assistance for it. The same thing goes double
for any of these little countries, most of whom have smaller R&D
budgets any european nation.