Slashdot Mirror
Lockheed Martin Awarded GPS III
D Ninja writes "Yesterday, Lockheed Martin was awarded the $1.4 billion Air Force contract to build the next-generation global positioning satellite system. This occurred after a series of delays as the Air Force decided between Lockheed and the competing bidding contractor, Boeing Co. 'GPS III, will give new navigation warfare (NAVWAR) capabilities to shut off GPS service to a limited geographical location while providing GPS to US and allied forces. GPS III will offer significant improvements in navigation capabilities by improving interoperability and jam resistance. The procurement of the GPS III system is planned for multiple blocks, with the GPS IIIA portion currently underway. GPS IIIA includes all of the GPS IIF capability plus up to a ten-fold increase in signal power, a new civil signal compatible with the European Union's Galileo system, and a new spacecraft bus that will allow a growth path to future blocks.'"
You got yourselves pretty comprehensively invaded by Europeans in the sixteenth century though. And we did pretty much wipe out your population.
The problem with invading China with the intention of exterminating the population is that they're unlikely to abide by the 'no nuclear weapons' rule you made up. And if they're all going to die anyway, you've just removed the last reason they have for not launching: mutually assured destruction.
As far as I'm aware the US missile defence system isn't up and running yet (and hopefully never will be), but even if George Bush came over all Return of the Jedi and declared it Fully Operational in the middle of a battle, with so many American troops already in China doing this dirty work the missiles wouldn't even have to leave Chinese airspace to inflict massive amounts of American casualties. Which are politically unacceptable at home.