Posted on 12/23/2016 8:20:03 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Russia isn't done screwing with the United States in 2016.
On Dec. 16, the Russian military reportedly tested what appears to be an anti-satellite weapon—a rocket that can boost into low orbit and smash into enemy spacecraft.
The test could be the latest sign of Russia’s intention, and improving ability, to threaten America’s hundreds of government and private spacecraft—and chip away at the United States’ military and commercial advantage in space.
It might also be the latest provocation from a Russian regime that increasingly denies any responsibility for its most destabilizing moves. That’s how Moscow can get away with hacking elections in the United States and other Western countries and invading Ukraine, among other attacks on global order.
The apparent anti-satellite (ASAT) test largely escaped public notice. The Washington Free Beacon was the first to report on the weapon’s trial, on Dec. 21—attributing the information to unnamed U.S. government sources. CNN also pointed out the test, again citing anonymous U.S. officials.
Capt. Nicholas Mercurio, a spokesman for the 14th U.S. Air Force, which oversees space systems, declined to specifically comment on the reported Russian test. “We monitor missile launches around the globe,” Mercurio told The Daily Beast, “but as a matter of policy we don’t normally discuss intelligence specific to those launches.”
For the anti-satellite test, the Russians have a tidy cover story—that the rocket isn’t actually an anti-satellite weapon, or ASAT. Instead, it’s a meant for shooting down incoming ballistic missiles.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
If I were a foreign military strategist, I’d be advising my leaders to get out their Christmas lists and get done everything they wished for the last 8 years, because it’s gonna get a lot harder next month!
I guess China was hoping for a U.S. naval drone!
We’ll be lucky if we don’t get attacked.
All it takes is a couple of hits, and the shrapnel will take out the rest in that orbit.
The Chinese are known to have tested a weapon like this a few years ago. The resulting shrapnel was bad. It’s generally seen as a bad strategy for this sort of thing, unless the goal is to have a serious, long-term effect on space-based communications. You could shut-down satellite communications for a century without a great deal of trouble — whether intentional or not. No one wants that.
I highly doubt the Russians would go this route. It’s foolish and irresponsible.
Yeah, sure it doesn’t.
It doesn’t if you have a brain and think rather then justmindlessly regurgitate the fake media’s propaganda.
Ah, I see. So anyone who doesn’t automatically agree with you doesn’t have a brain then?
That ship has sailed. To and from both continents. For over 35 years.
does not violate any treaties.
Well... the treaty was made AFTER THE FACT that both the US and USSR developed and launched and tested their anti-satellite weapons. Neither Russia nor the US wanted any 'competition' so they came up with the treaty to ensure no one else could put one of these in orbit. And they weren't the 'ramming' type.
I watched the DEMO of the Russian anti-sat. It was done over the US specifically so we could watch. The guy who developed the weapon that was on board the satellite defected to the US and helped us create one , in the hopes that with both sides having it, neither would use it. It has worked so far.
The Russians and the US developed and launched their own versions of an Anti-Satellite Satellite that uses a Neutron Beam Weapon. The Russian one was tested over the US approximately 35 years ago. I know, I watched it. I knew an insider at NATCOMM and they watched it and tracked it. He had a tech journal that had an article about the scientist from Russia who invented the weapon and how he defected to the US and was helping us build one.
Indeed. Anti-satellite weapons are not inherently wrong, IMO. Beam weapons would be the smart choice.
It’s the “smashing into” tactic which I think is understood to be foolish for all. The Chinese, IIRC, exploded a satellite close to another satellite, willfully sending shrapnel out in a wide area, which then destroyed the target satellite, generating yet more shrapnel. I believe this is called Kessler Effect. It can turn into a runaway chain reaction which in effect sows land mines throughout entire orbits. Very bad.
But beam weapons are a lot more reasonable.
Anyone remember the novel about the Russian satellite with the giant rods that could be dropped from orbit causing catastrophe? The protagonists hijacked the on-board computer and used it against them. I read it just out of high school.
Solar storm/emp timing is not coincidental either.
Beam weapons usually produce a "soft kill". The satellite is dead, but there is no overt indication.
The difference between this and an enemy commanding a satellite to act dead and come back to life later is sometimes hard to discern.
Vlad is just rattling Hussein’s cage. Not that he cares since he’s on vacation.
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