On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 19:24:21 GMT, Charles Gray wrote:


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.

should probably be asked...which countries can do it, do you think,
Charles?