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Cold-War Missile Launches Military Satellite
Velcroman1 writes "At 11:49 a.m. EDT, a Minotaur IV+ rocket — essentially a decommissioned Peacekeeper missile built decades ago during the Cold War — launched the TacSat-4 satellite into orbit. Most troops today carry PRC-117 radios for communication, devices that rely on UHF transmissions. They relay calls and data back to a base station that's brought in and fixed in place, either set up on a hillside locally or carried overhead in a nearby plane. The TacSat-4 (or tactical microsatellite) lets the hundreds of thousands of military handheld radios currently in use communicate directly with an antenna orbiting in the most convenient spot imaginable: all that space overhead. 'If you're a mobile force, that requires a mobile infrastructure, the best place to put that infrastructure is in space,' said Dr. Larry Schuette, director of innovation for the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR)."
This is a good thing.
The last word of this story title could have been much worse.
Let's examine the spectrum from:
Cold-War Missile Launches Military Assault
to
Cold-War Missile Launches Military Baby Shower
Satellite launch cold-war missile.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
I'm just playing on one of my favorite films,
Dr. Strangelove
And one the silliest made-for-tv movies,
Slavage 1".
Actually maybe old Jed really did know a good cracker when he tasted one. MMM, MMM!
... we've been doing this for years. Converting USAF ICBM's into non-warhead launch vehicles isn't exactly a new practice. We've been doing this since the late 50's. A lot of early NASA launches were on ex-USAF Atlas missiles. The earlier Minoaturs were based on decommissioned Minuteman II's. Now it's the Peacekeeper's turn. One day, Minuteman III's will be retired to launch duty too. It just makes sense to do so. I remember Barbara Streisand giving a speech back in the 80's, about how buying ICBMs was wasteful because "they'd never be used". Shows what she knew. We were sending up a lot of converted Titan missiles as launch platforms during that period. So I don't know why this is news. Using these converted missiles has been a standard (and economical) practice for a long, long time now.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
We waste too much money building weapons to fight the last war.
And so you've figured out part of the business plan of the "defense" industry.
Yeah, and basically ever since.
The Soviet workhorse Soyuz is still directly descended from the world's first ICBM, the R-7, and the Proton is derived from a 100Mt ICBM design (though it was never produced as such).
The US Titan and Atlas launchers initially served as ICBMs under the same names, and the Delta family is derived from the Thor, the first US ICBM.
And the Chinese Long March 1 is derived from the Dongfeng 4, China's first ICBM, while the Long March 2-4 are derived from the successor Dongfeng 5.
Basically, the only entities who don't use a modified ICBM are the ones who don't have any; those who have been in space several decades (US and Russia) have or are developing dedicated launchers, since the requirements really don't match precisely, but the old designs are still in wide use.
The TacSat-4 (or tactical microsatellite) lets the hundreds of thousands of military handheld radios currently in use communicate directly with an antenna orbiting in the most convenient spot imaginable: all that space overhead.
In a few years, just about any country with any sort of technological capability will be able to shoot down satellites. Satellite radios are all fine and dandy, but I think it would be best if those radios can also switch to a "PRC-117 Mode".
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
A more efficient way of communicating so you can kill people.
Like New Orleans after Katrina (after civilian orgs failed), Indian Ocean region after their tsunami, Haiti after the earthquake, Japan after their tsunami, etc?
The next war will be in space.
Or possibly at the top of a very tall mountain. Either way, most of the actual fighting will be done by robots. Our mission is clear.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
TacSat isn't in geosync:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TacSat-4#Mission
TacSat-4 will fly the highly elliptical, 4-hour, orbit (12,050 kilometers at peak) providing typical payload communication periods of two hours per orbit. TacSat-4’s orbit also allows it to cover the high latitudes.
TacSat was launched to allow coverage to existing military radios in locations not served by other satellite constellations.
I'll bet the launch g-forces are way to high. ( the B in ICBM is balistic which I believe describes most of the flight ) plus, the thing probably doesn't nearly approach safety standards for human flight.
It's been awhile.... but the mentioned "Prick" 117 has anti spoof anti jam capabilities (SINCGARS and HAVEQUICK), Basically frequency hoppers (amongst other shenanigans).
While possible to jam, it isn't easy. Voice comm still gets through along with heavily error corrected (and slow!) data streams.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.