[ssf] US 'to launch bombs from unmanned spacecraft'

[Chris Malins]

There is no record that I can find on the Telegraph website of having 
published this article. Dunno what that means! I don't know why they 
have credited to the Telegraph if it is not their article. Source story 
can however be found in the Washington Post of the day before though.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38272-2005Mar15.html

so I assume that the gist of the information is accurate.

Its an interesting example of the increasing unilateral militarisation 
of space by America. Aside from anything else, by turning space into a 
theatre of war, the US gives itself justification to prevent any 
non-aligned country from using space for commercial and scientific 
purposes, it will be interesting to see how much pressure the Chinese 
space program may come under in coming years. Although there is 
currently little evidence of this sort of thinking from the US, it may 
be worthy of note that this sort of capability does slightly reduce the 
need of the Us military fro forward bases in allied nations, eg in the 
Middle East, and that in the evnt that usch bases were dismantled, that 
would be at least a small positive outcome. The deployment of 
sub-orbital bombers is in line with the trend towards high altitude high 
technology bomb deployment, and this is not in particular a sinister 
outcome, although it does blur the line between sub-orbital capability 
(planes with bombs that go high, and orbital strike capacity (a massive 
orbiting battle-station death star with the capability to obliterate the 
world). While worth noting that achieving any sort of accuracy from 
space is an example of high precision technology, it is also worth 
noting that in this context high precision is unlikely to be precise 
enough to actually hit exactly the right target, based on contemporary 
precision bombing failure rates.

Certainly the availability of an automated global strike system with 
which a president can take out any object on the face of the planet (or 
at least something quite near it) is a worrying development in the 
objectification of strike force.

Chris

Dan wrote:
> Sorry about sending all these things... it's stuff we all know in the 
> abstract, but to read about it actually happening...
> 
> http://globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050317-spacecraft.htm
> 
> The Pentagon is looking to space as the next frontier in its quest for 
> absolute military supremacy.
> 
> It is planning a new generation of sub-orbital bombers able to strike 
> anywhere in the world "within minutes".
> 
> The Falcon programme will this year test a launcher for its Common Aero 
> Vehicle (CAV), an unmanned spacecraft that would travel five times the 
> speed of sound and carry 1,000 pounds of bombs and intelligence sensors, 
> the House armed services committee has been told.
> 
> Defence chiefs expect the CAV to be ready by 2010. A second stage of the 
> project will develop two versions of a reusable "space plane" that could 
> cruise at 100,000 feet, carrying a CAV anywhere in the world.
> 
> The Falcon programme is understood to reflect the Bush administration's 
> growing interest in using space as a battle zone.
> 
> John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a non-governmental defence 
> think tank, told the Washington Post the US will be able "to crush 
> someone anywhere in the world on 30 minutes' notice".
> 
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