Space shot diverts US eyes from rogue states

Telegraph ^ | 1/19/2007 | Con Coughlin

[NRA2BFree]

There's a bit of misunderstanding here. China destroyed a satellite in orbit. That is a threat to satellites, but has little to do with our systems designed to shoot down a missile. Satellite orbits are well known and you merely need to rendevouz a vehicle close enough and blow it up. Picking up a missile's trajectory and hitting it in flight is a far more difficult task.

But of course, we have anti-missile systems in place and they are designed to work. I believe we worked on satellite killers years ago as well.

Thanks for the information. I must admit that I don't know that much about it. I only know what I heard them say on the news tonight.

[Sandreckoner]

Not really, especially when you consider that the Soviet carriers were notoriously failure-prone, even given the Soviets' long history of carrier and naval flight experience.

And, if you believe claims of 78,000 ton ships carrying 70 4 and 5-gen aircraft, you're talking something akin to a U.S. supercarrier - not a Varyag-type vessel. And this doesn't begin to get into the issues of acquiring and effectively deploying a supporting fleet, much less the air wings.

The forums and sources that these claims generally come from (or at least the more eye-popping details) tend to also be the same forums where you find claims that the Chinese say they will build three supercarriers by 2016, and where you find similar sources 'revealing' details of how the latest Chinese fighter has been besting Sukhois in Chinese testing.

[gr8eman]

It is total BS!

[gr8eman]

It is total BS!

[Clioman]

It IS BS. The Air Force successfully tested an anti-satellite missile (ASM-125) in the 80s, but shelved it on orders from above after lefties in Congress expressed fears that it might upset the Russians.

[Mike Darancette]

If China has succeeded in developing the technology to shoot down satellites, it will have achieved technical superiority over the US, which is still struggling to develop its interceptor missile technology.

F-15 ASAT