I think it’s a safe bet that the mission is surveillance.
That being said, I really wish we had a Rods From God capability. Imagine an orbiting platform loaded with tungsten rods. Maneuver over a hot spot and, if needed, drop a heavy kinetic weapon at about Mach 10 or something.
Delivery time in just a few minutes, no chance of blocking the weapon. BOOM!
If you need to re-load, land the plane and add some more rods. It’s cheap, it’s powerful, it’s unstoppable, and there is no radiation or chemical residue.
But I imagine the plane in question simply had cameras. Sigh.
That is an AWESOME idea !!!!
And GPR/Xrays to see inside KJU’s two sats. If they need to be taken out to deep space, we’ll need proof of why we did it. Only Iran and Cuba will care, anyway.
Let’s just hypothetically say we DO have Rods from God.
Currently such devices are not banned by international treaty.
Should one be used, however, you can be certain that the dust would not even have settled and there would be motions at the UN to ban such a device.
It would mean that we would only have one shot at using them, so it better be a damned important target.
This would only be a concern if we actually had Rods from God, which we don’t.
I promise.
No the mission launched under Bammy. The mission was to make Muslims feel better.
We are unlikely to see “rods from God” because it would make much of our own armor obsolete. Like Carriers, certain things are sacrosanct. Too many Flag Officer positions would be jeapordized. Heck “rods from God” would put and end to surface fleets too. No one wants to go there.