US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

[ZiprHead]

US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons

The US Air Force Secretary says the weapons are necessary to defend the country against enemy action.

www.bbc.com

The US has confirmed it deployed a space weapon in Earth's orbit, the first time it has acknowledged such offensive capabilities.

US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said the "on orbit" weapon was necessary to safeguard US forces against hostile enemy action.

Speaking at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference on Monday, Meink said the US was ready for "evolving threats", but did not elaborate on the weapon's capabilities or when it was put into orbit.

Senior military leaders have previously said they planned to boost military capabilities in space, citing Russian and Chinese programmes developing ways to attack and disrupt US satellites in a future conflict.

 

[Elixir]

From here it looks like anyone with a bomb and a rocket would probably hit something without even aiming, there’s so much crap in low orbit.
I really want to see what a LEO collision might look like from here.

 

[Shadowy Man]

From here it looks like anyone with a bomb and a rocket would probably hit something without even aiming, there’s so much crap in low orbit.
I really want to see what a LEO collision might look like from here.

there may be a lot of satellites, but there's also a lot of space. there's likely hundreds of kilometers between any two satellites on average.

 

[Elixir]

From here it looks like anyone with a bomb and a rocket would probably hit something without even aiming, there’s so much crap in low orbit.
I really want to see what a LEO collision might look like from here.

there may be a lot of satellites, but there's also a lot of space. there's likely hundreds of kilometers between any two satellites on average.

I know - but there are also collisions.
So I did contemplate what could be accomplished by launching a swimming pool full of BBs (without the actual pool) into a slightly eccentric LEO …
Would collision speeds be high enough that a BB could cause a lot of damage?

 

[ZiprHead]

I've seen reports of Chinese satellites "harassing" US satellites.

 

[bilby]

I know - but there are also collisions.
So I did contemplate what could be accomplished by launching a swimming pool full of BBs (without the actual pool) into a slightly eccentric LEO …
Would collision speeds be high enough that a BB could cause a lot of damage?

Yes.

But you can save yourself the costs of a launch by just waiting for it to happen on its own. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

 

[brewer]

 

[Shadowy Man]

From here it looks like anyone with a bomb and a rocket would probably hit something without even aiming, there’s so much crap in low orbit.
I really want to see what a LEO collision might look like from here.

there may be a lot of satellites, but there's also a lot of space. there's likely hundreds of kilometers between any two satellites on average.

I know - but there are also collisions.
So I did contemplate what could be accomplished by launching a swimming pool full of BBs (without the actual pool) into a slightly eccentric LEO …
Would collision speeds be high enough that a BB could cause a lot of damage?

launch them retrograde for maximum effect.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said the "on orbit" weapon was necessary to safeguard US forces against hostile enemy action.

These fucks claim that about literally everything they do.

 

[steve_bank]

Back to Regan and his Star Wars program. As I remember none it was found workable.'And inow ew have another military speace race.

Strategic Defense Initiative - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed the Star Wars program, was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles.[1] The program was announced in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, a vocal critic of the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact".[2] Reagan called for a system that would end MAD and render nuclear weapons obsolete.[3] Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 under the Space Development Agency (SDA).[4]

I remember somersetting about test results being faked to influence Russia.

Official Findings: Later government investigations by the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Pentagon concluded that while a deception and enhancement plan was considered or partially set up for early tests, the actual target beacon used in the tests was strictly linked to ground-based tracking radar for safety, and the final successful fourth test was not guided by a fake signa

Star Wars is credited with helping to collapse the Soviets. Economics.

 

[bilby]

From here it looks like anyone with a bomb and a rocket would probably hit something without even aiming, there’s so much crap in low orbit.
I really want to see what a LEO collision might look like from here.

there may be a lot of satellites, but there's also a lot of space. there's likely hundreds of kilometers between any two satellites on average.

I know - but there are also collisions.
So I did contemplate what could be accomplished by launching a swimming pool full of BBs (without the actual pool) into a slightly eccentric LEO …
Would collision speeds be high enough that a BB could cause a lot of damage?

To expand on my earlier "yes", space isn't so much difficult to get to because it is far; It's difficult to get to because it is FAST.

Even if the relative velocities of two objects in orbit is low, their collision will likely increase the number of objects in that orbit, and there are likely to be plenty of other objects with which these can collide at much higher relative velocities.

Everything up there is moving fast, or it would have fallen down by now. The chances of two objects of very similar velocity colliding is low; The chances of two objects of very dissimilar velocity colliding is high.

To use a motoring analogy, at freeway speeds, it's the driver who is weaving across lanes, and/or driving at a very different speed from the rest of the traffic, who is most likely to have a collision.

And as @Shadowy Man suggests, the guy driving the wrong way is almost certain to be in a very serious smash.

Now imagine that the debris from the collisions keeps driving at high speed, causing new collisions, and making even more debris...

 

[Elixir]

From here it looks like anyone with a bomb and a rocket would probably hit something without even aiming, there’s so much crap in low orbit.
I really want to see what a LEO collision might look like from here.

there may be a lot of satellites, but there's also a lot of space. there's likely hundreds of kilometers between any two satellites on average.

I know - but there are also collisions.
So I did contemplate what could be accomplished by launching a swimming pool full of BBs (without the actual pool) into a slightly eccentric LEO …
Would collision speeds be high enough that a BB could cause a lot of damage?

launch them retrograde for maximum effect.

What I see in the sky looks pretty random. Satellites going every which way. North-South seems to dominate but they’re seriously coming from every which way.
Like, there’s a different retrograde for every crosser.

 

[aupmanyav]

That is no problem. If US has it, Russia, China will have it. And if China has it, then India too will have it.
The capability, but I do not think anyone will use it.

 

[Elixir]

That is no problem. If US has it, Russia, China will have it. And if China has it, then India too will have it.

Much cheaper to simply assume they all think we have it.

 

[Shadowy Man]

From here it looks like anyone with a bomb and a rocket would probably hit something without even aiming, there’s so much crap in low orbit.
I really want to see what a LEO collision might look like from here.

there may be a lot of satellites, but there's also a lot of space. there's likely hundreds of kilometers between any two satellites on average.

I know - but there are also collisions.
So I did contemplate what could be accomplished by launching a swimming pool full of BBs (without the actual pool) into a slightly eccentric LEO …
Would collision speeds be high enough that a BB could cause a lot of damage?

launch them retrograde for maximum effect.

What I see in the sky looks pretty random. Satellites going every which way. North-South seems to dominate but they’re seriously coming from every which way.
Like, there’s a different retrograde for every crosser.

Most of the north-south orbits will be the sun synchronous orbits (which have some retrograde movement) but most satellites at lower inclinations will be going west to east.

 

[aupmanyav]

Much cheaper to simply assume they all think we have it.

We manage our space and defense programs with much less money that US of A.