Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Air Force Plans for War In Space
arhca writes "Wired has an article about the U.S. Air Force's plans to put military weapons in outer space. Plans include firing hypervelocity rods from space to targets on the ground, space-based lasers and large mirrors to reflect the beams at targets on the ground, and a space-based radio frequency energy weapon to destroy or disable foreign satellites. The Air Force's PDF can be found here."
Ah the sheer scope of our commitement to killing each other is staggering.
Technology? Progress? Dude, nothing has changed since my ancestral parent kicked your acestral parent's ass with a bone club.
Web pages, blogs, palm pilots....big fucking deal.
So these weapons will float up there without an enemy (at the moment) but once a foreign nation is considered "evildoers" the U.S. can rain down destruction as their war-machine infrastructure is already in place.
Naturally the American taxpayers will be told that this will make the world a safer place.
Trolling is a art,
Chance favors the prepared mind....our military has contingency plans for EVERYTHING. There are departments in every branch whose only job is to constantly think up the most outlandish scenarios, idea, plans, etc. With every possible variant of enemies, allies, strength of forces, technology. I once saw a detailed plan of battle in the event that Canada and Mexico ally and attack the US. This same philosophy applies to funding projects. If congress suddenly gets a bug under it's ass about space defense, the Air Force can whip out this portfolio and say "Well, with only $60 million, we can put these forces in place." What's funny is to watch the public react when some of these plans leak. All sorts of people freak out, like a few years ago when a contingency plan for invading China leaked out at the same time that there was tension regarding Taiwan. Now maybe this proposal for space has advanced beyond that wild ass idea phase, and if that's the case then it's because the Air Force thinks Congress might go for it.
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
Brief overview of a proposal in front of the UN to ban all space-based weaponry which the US is actively part of.
This, the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament treaties, the anti-ballistic missile treaty, and the landmine treaty. Doesn't the US have ANY respect left for other countries let alone their own integrity? This is just getting disgusting.
This is not a sig.
true, definitely true. but the weary middle-aged male in me isn't looking forward to eating catfood out of a can with my fingers in my retirement, what with all the output of our economy whizzing around in space over our heads.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Yup. Just like nukes did. Just like smart bombs did. Just like cruise missiles did.
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
The ABM Treaty had a clause in it that said that any party can withdraw from the agreement with six month's notice. Bush gave the six month's notice, and withdrew from the treaty.
Of course, the ABM treaty was also signed with a nation that no longer exists, the USSR. So...what's the problem?
The Space Treaty does not ban weapons in space, it only bans nuclear weapons in space. None of the weapons specified in this report are nuclear.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Being able to drop MORE weapons on other nations does not do ANYTHING to "protect" the US citizens.
We already spend more money on our military than anyone else in the world.
What possible threat will this "protect" us from?
Back in the "Cold War" era, this might have been useful. Now it is just a waste.
Is that why the US managed to hit a clearly located Red Cross compound in Afghanistan not once but twice? Or why it managed to hit a Chinese embassy building in the Balkans?
It's not just about your bombs landing where they are aimed. It's about making sure that they are aimed in the right place as well. Without the latter, the former is pointless.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Scenarion 2: A big motherfucking bomb drops out of the sky, blows your friend into tiny kibbles-n-bits sized chunks, and sends you ass over elbows into a crumpled heap some 20 yards away. Your reaction? "HOLY FLURKING SHNIT!" What ya gonna do about it? You'd instantly realize you're way the hell out of your league.
that just forces them not to fight against those with the big bombs directly.
they end up hiding among civilians, sending out suicide bombers and crashing passenger jets into skyscrapers. they are resorting to these tactics because they know they are out of their league and this is the only way they have to fight back.
also blowing up a city block to kill someone on their way to blow up a bus seems to fullfill their goals anyways. except any surviving victims of a bomb are going to hate us instead of the suicide bomber. of course the only way they will have to get back at us is to become terrorists themselves, since their army couldn't possibly fight us.
but whatever... just means that the inivisible army that we need to be protected from will just get bigger and we'll need bigger bombs to protect ourselves from them.
It will be a great day
when our schools get all the money they need
and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber
Do we really need this stuff? I could see arguments for more communications hardware up there, but hypervelocity weapons and lasers? How many decades will pass before something even remotely workable is off the drawing boards? Ike must be rolling in his grave.
I didn't think the house band in Hell would play this badly.
( ok they aren't colonies they are client-states)
I had the opportunity to hear Gorbachev speak back in 2000 in Florida. One of the quotes I took away was, "America tried very hard to lose the Cold War. The Solviet Union tried harder."
Fairly succinct summary one would think.
1. Kyoto protocol was voted against 95 to 0 in the senate, and therefore had no chance of being legally binding in the US. We don't live in a dictatorship a president signing a treaty is mostly symbolic.
2. The provisions of the ICC would have been unconstitutional in the US. Therefore any such treaty would be null and void, and a crime against the american people.
3. The EU has been breaking a judgement by the WTO about bananas that went through the full appeals system for quite sometime now. Don't here a lot about that now do we? Besides.. those tarriffs were lifted.
4. Awww... the rest of world honestly didn't understand what "serious consequences" was going to mean... get real!
5. The ABM treaty was ALLOWED to be broken, with notice. Russia said the same thing although they called it "regrettable"
the problem for the US is that its traditional allies are starting to look more and more like strategic adversaries every day.
Yes, but it's the US that has changed, not the allies. When all your friends suddenly stop liking and trusting you, the chances are that it's you that's the problem, not your friends!