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Japan To Launch a Military Space Force In 2019
Taco Cowboy writes Japan is planning to launch a military space force by 2019. The Mainichi Shimbun is reporting that Japan plans to create a "space force" within its existing Self Defence Force, hoping to have it operational by 2019. Japan would provide the US military with information obtained by the force as part of the joint bid to strengthen ties in space, the so-called "fourth battlefield", Kyodo news agency said, citing unnamed sources. Note that this plan, which involves simply looking into space using old civilian astronomy equipment and radar, is just the beginning. The transforming space fighters and combat mechs will presumably come later.
... required to operate those space mechs? Child Labour is frowned upon, these enlightened days.
super villians and aliens are such a nusiance. Superman is really busy, so spending the money on this is way overdue.
...just the right event to kick off a new space race.
--- I was far from home, and the spell of the Eastern sea was upon me. -Lovecraft-
Which of the hypothetical weapons is slated to protect us from Planet Bankruptcy?
I could have sworn that there was a non militarization of space treaty in place
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Bring on space battles. I want space battles in my life time. I know aliens probably won't happen and neither will colonizing aonther planet or even the moon, but at least let me have space ship battles.
The reality, is man vs man space combat will likely never happen. Organics are too vulnerable. If there is ever combat in space, it will be via drones sniping each other over ridiculously long distances.
The Middle East has the world's eyes, but it is no more than two drunks fighting behind a cantina compared to what happens if the Pacific Rim goes up.
People dislike the US, but one thing America has been good at has been keeping the peace in that theater since WWII.
The Pacific Rim affects the world. People don't realize that the casualties of WWI were dwarfed by civil wars in China, or the magnitude of people, technology, and military might in the region.
It is understandable (and reasonable) for Japan to do what it must, especially as China starts militarizing, but I wish it would be possible for Pacific Rim nations and the US to make a treaty as binding as WTO, but to deal with territorial disputes. Likely impossible, but should that area of the world go "hot", everyone in the world will suffer greatly for it... yes, everyone, be it people in Russia, the US, Germany, Iran, or everywhere else.
Yes, what a great idea! Lets blow shit up in space making *anything* in orbit impossible.
Who needs weather satellites, GPS, and communication equipment anyway?
Let's hope it's comprised of 5 giant mechanical lions that can combine together into a single massive mechanical humanoid.
Better known as 318230.
Space Battleship Yamato.... finally...
Wave Motion Gun...
Obviously, this is a counter to China put blame where it belongs.
Why bother when they already have this guy?
MST3K 0816 Prince Of Space
I watched that as a kid.
The article headline here makes it sound like Japan is getting ready to start space warfare, when in fact the article itself says that this program is meant to protect existing orbital assets by tracking space debris. I don't get why they use the term "fourth battlefield" in the article either, since it doesn't seem like anyone affiliated with this program actually said that. If anything, this sounds like it could lead to efforts to capture space junk and dispose of it safely.
Looks like Japan is trying to make a good excuse for a transforming mech... so let's call them Gundams :D
"In the kingdom where everything dies, the sky is mortal."
Build your 1997 Space Hotel first you big talkers...
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9705/2...
Japan likes to announce grandiose projects but they can't even get reliable electricity and are an aging population...
Let go of the comic books, folks.
need to stop space godzilla
yada yada yada
I mean Big Rocks are about as conventional a weapon as one can get. Cavemen could do big rocks. Monkeys can do big rocks. But, dropped/thrown/launched from space, they also make for a much tidier alternative to nukes.
Isn't that paper like the Japanese equivalent to the Weekly World News, or the National Enquirer?
Giant flaming rocket powered space turtles
Actually space is the 5th battlefield. The 4th battlefield has already been established as "cyberspace".
You don't need children for day to day peacetime operations. It's only when the war turns desperate that you really need them.
Also the best child pilots are invariably the ones that aren't part of the program and just wanter onto the base anyway so may as well maintain plausible deniability until that point.
"I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe; attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion; I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost... in time, like... tears... in rain."
it could go either way.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Maybe Japan and the United States could no this jointly. It would help both governments in job creation and increasing technology. We need to work together more in our world.
Chris
Owner CEL Financial Services
http://www.taxprepfillmore.com/santa-paula-tax-preparation.
Will they call the Science Patrol, and fight Kaiju?
Or, for that matter, just about any Japanese space-related anime?
Such an odd duck, that country. Pop culture suffused with space, but actual progress in the field never very motivated.
Code name: Star Blazers! Cue the theme, raise the Yamato, and ready the wave motion gun!
-Z
If you find an A6M on your tail and you have the maneuverability advantage, turn sharp right. If you don't have the maneuverability advantage, don't try to dogfight, make a steep dive, get away, rejoin the fight.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
space Mecha from Japan in 20/30 years is incredibly realistic.
space force is my new favorite term.
It is what it is.
Lots of coders needed for the transformer mechas OS and electro-mechanical systems.
Japan will create its Space Force, better known as Star Force, in 2199. The article has a typo.
Given Japans jingoistic, imperialistic, militaristic history of trying to enslave the world this a very, very bad idea. I don't trust the country. Yeah, yeah, they've changed, they're reformed, sure... Remember Pearl Harbor. Japan deserved Little Boy and Big Boy. They earned it by what they did and what they vowed to do and how they said they would never stop.
Battletech wasn't around until the late 80s and was a wargame loosedly based on the Robotech mecha but with nothing else in common with them. It's also why the early Battletech games had Veritech fighter rules and later 'phased them out' by claiming the tech was too advanced and broke down :)
I think they'd all but eliminated them by the end of the clan wars arc, although I lost interest in it around that time and everything later just kinda sucked.
If Japan wants to do this, they'll have to do something about the (un)reliability of their rockets and probes.
The track record so far isn't exactly wonderful and indications are that the problems are cultural rather than technical (If you're brought up not to question authority, you don't interrupt your superior when he's making a mistake - even if that mistake might be crashing an aircraft, or putting a flawed rocket motor design together.)
Probably one of the better examples. A movie, not a TV series. Involve the use of children using mechs to fight in a war against aliens in distant space. Interestingly enough, the movie isn't really about this, but rather the long distance relationship between a girl that gets recruited, and a boy who does not. Presumably they use children because of reflexes, or size, or more likely the length of time involved.
What makes this story most interesting is that all the communication is done VIA texting. Yes Space texting, presumably though some technological magic communication device which seems compatible with modern cellphones. Anyway that plot device aside, the real interest is that one is traveling at greater than relativistic speeds, and probably also some space lag if you will. This means while the boy ages though his life, having a family etc... the girl pretty much stays the same age...
It is very much a retelling of Joe Haldeman's "Forever War", about love spanning space and time, though with a much sadder conclusion.