Security in the USA

I would vote for (a), modified, as follows:

Even though as a pilot in the DC area, I am as inconvenienced and
frustrated by the ADIZ as everyone else, I can understand its
rationale--a buffer zone to qualify/charcterize traffic around the DC
area. But the last incursion brought to light 2 flaws:

(1) It barely worked for a C-150 doing 95 mph-- I mean, they were at 3
miles from the White House before the shooters were in place with
launch authorization--many previous posts to this newsgroup have
highlighted the fact that a faster platform could have been on target
well before a response could have been brought to bear

(2) it responds best to platforms that pose the least threat--lost
light singles with crappy navigation/comms--kind of like the all the
news stories of the TSA beating up on old ladies with tweezers and
sewing pins and letting the guns through

If the ADIZ is going to really protect us then it has to expanded for
faster aircraft, in other words a "time on target" envelope rather than
a fixed radius for all aircraft. Light planes would have an ADIZ at
the current radius; faster ones at an expanded envelope.

In order to implement this, some means of characterization needs to be
in place to enforce it. I think current sensor technology allows this.
As a submarine driver during the cold war, I used a combination of
electromagnetic, infrared, and acoustic sensors that (I think) could
accomplish this--ID the target at point of incursion. To get an idea:

The acoustic sensors could tell you not only that the plane was a
C-150, but that the #3 cylinder was not going to make it to TBO

The infrared sensors would allow you to see the structural girders of
the aircraft internally, because they are at a slightly different
temperature than the skin

The EM sensors were truly magic, without going into a lot of detail
they would provide you with every possible bit of information about an
emitter, down to its place of manufacture

As it stands now the ADIZ is like a lot of the "feel good, look good,
not really do anything" meausures post-911. Like the non-Title 10
National Guardsmen standing around airports immediately
afterwards--pure eye candy.

Hank Rausch