Posted on 04/06/2005 5:49:01 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
US 'to launch bombs from unmanned spacecraft'
By Tom Leonard, New York
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".
I guess that good video-game-playing skill is becoming a serious job qualification for operating unmanned combat aircrafts of various kind.
Ubl -- prepare for hell.
That's all well and good, but before we as a country spend millions and billions on it we must fix the problem of the lack of will to drop bombs in the first place.
How many mosques that served as fortresses were bombed in Fallujah and the Sunni Triangle?: Not a single one.
" and carry 1,000 pounds of bombs and intelligence sensors,"
1000 lbs of ordinance doesn't seem like much. Aren't the bigger bombs like 500 lbs or so? Toss in sensors and the # drops farther. Seems like this is more suitable as a beam weapon platform or a nuke delivery vehicle.
Not to disagree with your overall point, but I do recall seeing a video of action from Fallujah with a Bradley firing round after round of 25 mm into a large, ornate building that certainly looked like a mosque. I also remember reading reports of parts of mosque "compounds" being taken out after some Marines received fire. But I agree with your point.
Many smart bombs are 500#, and 250# is becoming common. With greater accuracy, you need less explosive to achieve the same result.
I don't know where this myth got started, but I see it's still alive and well.
Dropped from suborbital flight, even a dumb projectile can accumulate enormous kinetic energy to do a great damage to a target.
Damn! Why is this declassified!? I hope China and Russia does not borrow the idea of this weapon and build their own.
"Aren't the bigger bombs like 500 lbs or so?"
2000 lbs. for the bigger ones. The fuel-air bombs can much heavier I think.
At least China will have master the whole orbiting around the earth thing - oh and produce some sort of smart bomb. Russia on the other hand won't make it, because none of the countries they sell arms to could afford it.
Sounds like the bomber the Nazis were developing at the end of WWII.
http://worldatwar.net/chandelle/v1/v1n1/ww2space.htm
"It is planning a new generation of sub-orbital bombers able to strike anywhere in the world 'within minutes'. "
And if the weapon doesn't reach you in 30 minutes or less, the next one will be free!
Smaller bombs, when placed right, can do the required damage.
I wonder if they can drop bags of dog sh*t from sub orbital space. Wouldn't kill you but it would be damn humiliating having dog pooh raining down on you.
We already launch bombs from unmanned vehicles.
Check his CV (resume). No degrees. Not even evidence of a high-school diploma. Yet this mountebank is regularly consulted as a talking head when such matters are discussed.
--Boris
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