Defence matters
My compliments to T.V. Jayan and G.S. Mudur for their well-written article, Star Wars (December 4). The problem of decoys has ever been the bane for both the attacking as well as the defending missiles, as the article highlights. The ongoing international weapons dialectics exercise commonly referred to as Revolution in Military Affairs has recommended that the attacker should definitely use multiple independently targeted warheads both at the tactical and the strategic levels while the defender should “seed” as much area of the attacker’s expected flight path as feasible with decoy targets, preferably close to the attacker’s launch air space. The attacking missile should certainly be tackled well before it reaches its apex trajectory. The defender’s decoys usually comprise highly sensitive electronic chaff. It is a moot point whether India really needs a missile defence system primarily because of the huge cost factor.
JK Dutt Calcutta
Budding talent
The innovations conjured up by the budding scientists of our country (Big ideas from the young, December 4) were mind-boggling. When we have so much talent amongst our youths, why is it not being tapped to the fullest? KnowHow must publish more such reports; not only will it make for good reading, it will also highlight what our students are capable of. Perhaps then there will be a day when we will not have to look for “German technology” and “Made in USA” tags.
Kaushik Basu Behala
T he horns of a dilemma (December 4) was interesting as well as fun to read. There are thousands of such stories in the animal world; Nature might seem to run its course in a smooth manner, but in reality, it is filled with the most complex of situations.
Uday Deb New Barrackpore
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