The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website October 13, 2017:
The president offered a reassuring image in case of a North Korean attack, but it’s based on faulty math and flawed assumptions. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
“We have missiles that can knock out a missile in the air 97 percent of the time, and if you send two of them, it’s going to get knocked down.”
— President Trump, interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Oct. 11, 2017
In discussing the threat posed by North Korea and its rush to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), President Trump offered a reassuring image: a missile defense so robust that a single interceptor had a 97-percent success rate — and two interceptors would assuredly knock the ICBM out of the sky. Continue reading “Trump’s claim that a U.S. interceptor can knock out ICBMs ’97 percent of the time’”