The United States has deployed weapons in space and will use them to defend American forces, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday – the first public acknowledgment of such capabilities in orbit and a deliberate signal to those that pose potential threats in the domain.
“China develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernization strategy,” the US Space Force says on its website, while “Russia views space as a warfighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts.”
US military officials have repeatedly warned the two countries are testing new offensive space capabilities, citing examples such as Russian satellite constellation training missions that Washington says could demonstrate “attack and defend tactics” for future combat and China’s development of a nuclear capable partial-orbit hypersonic missile.
The one place capitalism couldn’t taint, has been tainted by capitalism…
Does this at least mean we can work with China again for space stuff? Wasn’t the whole rationale for NOT working with them on ISS etc that they were deploying weapons in space, or is this one of those predictable “rules for thee and not for me” scenarios?
Weapons in space.
No universal healthcare.
Massive wealth disparity only getting worse.
Women losing rights.
Democracy threatened.
Inflation.
Student debt epidemic.
Poison food.
Resurging racism.
Climate change.
Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.
Kessler syndrome, here we come.
So if you carry a US smartphone, you can be targeted from space.
Really annoying how certain media outlets treat every single thing the US military says as fact without independently verifying it themselves
I don’t believe you.
(meta joke, just being silly. I do agree with you)
“Good evening, I’m Jess Perkins with Casey Wong. Top story: Santa Barbara. 10,000 acres of wooded residential land were scorched in an instant when a laser cannon aboard the Strategic Defense Peace Platform misfired today during routine startup tests. Casey?”
“Yes, it was a day of mourning for the families of 113 known dead at this hour. Among them: two former United States presidents who had retired in the Santa Barbara area. A day of mourning for a country.”
When reality has shifted so much 40-year-old satire sounds like reality.
Yeah fucking starlink
So…space lasers?
Pylons would be the most damaging of anything but would take a lot to get the coverage you would need enough to cause any real threat… idono
Space guns.
The death star
What weapons, has this been interdependently verified? Doesn’t seem either is known by this article so for now just take it with a grain of salt.
Big grain of salt.
Russia and China have kept to kinetic test attacks, and I can only assume the US would do the same. For years everyone sent cameras up and brought them down to develop the film. I would guess that sending a remote-triggered rifle with a few rounds has happened since the 60s.
Don’t have to be complicated to work.
Predictably disappointing, the Outer Space Treaty was too vague and toothless as a cornerstone of space legislation.
I don’t think it matters how specific or what the consequences of violating it would be, I think humankind would be bound to violate the treaty eventually. Either to maintain their superiority or fear of another nation having superiority over them.
Next time you wanna write something both boring and bleak, go ahead and say it to somebody else.
outer space treaty is about nuclear weapons
Exactly. It was not adequately expansive in my opinion
i doubt that anyone in usaf cares about your opinion
Why are you talking to me?
So we’re just gonna accept instant Kessler syndrome on the opening of a war between two space powers? Cool. Coolcoolcool. Love this.
I wonder how many high-speed ball bearings you’d have to launch to start a chain reaction?
I don’t think we’re necessarily talking about kinetic weapons here, something like GPS or Starlink equivalent jamming could be equally devastating.
Rods. tungsten rods.
rod from god
Star Wars I guess
And we’re believing anything this administration claims?
I mean, it’s not like a bunch of Starlink satellites couldn’t be a weapon if you really wanted them to be. Adjust course just enough and boom, no more target.
Starlink satellites are in LEO, and in order to hit anything in a higher orbit, would need way too much delta-V for the amount of propellant that they carry. Otherwise you’d need to be very lucky to have one within striking distance when a launched object crosses the LEO boundary.
I think they mean ground targets, deorbit and slap whatever you want. They’d probably burn up and disintegrate before hitting the ground though.
You ain’t wrong, but, y’know, read all of my post there.
And my response still stands. Adjustments that can be made with on-board propellant, for ANY satellite, is far smaller than you seem to think. There’s a lot of room out there around Earth for orbits, and only so many that are actually under US government control. A laser (or particle beam weapon) would be able to extend a satellite’s reach far better, and generates less debris that would cause more problems down the line.
