Weapons in Space
Okay, confession time. I was a high school policy debater. I spent the better part of four years arguing at very high speed over absurdly convoluted scenarios, including what it would be like if we had weapons in space. So it's simultaneously kind of cool and kind of creepy to read Bob Brewin's piece on the debate over satellite-disabling weapons. This stuff was never supposed to become TRUE!
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Government Executive Staff Correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg takes a look at news affecting the management and operations of the massive federal bureaucracy.
We have to be careful to read the hidden agendas. The DOD and Defense Industries will always push the fear button because new projects bring them new windfalls. Just because China managed to shoot down one very well studied satellite doesn't mean they intend to develop a whole weapons program to do so.
Destroying a satellite in orbit is China's equivalent to our destroying a falling satellite. We like to show off our muscle too. It's our military and defense industries that would like nothing better than to start another weapons build up. They know that this administration intends to gradually reduce the wasteful defense spending.
We can already send up unmanned recon aircraft at a moment's notice. What would China really gain by destroying our satellites and probably disabling theirs in the process?
Robert M. Posted Monday, March 23, 2009 7:20 AMSatellite weapons, both ground based and on-orbit, have been around for more than twenty years as mentioned in the article. This suggests that countermeasures to these weapons have also been around a long time. You would have to be naive to think otherwise.
Paul S. Posted Monday, March 23, 2009 7:47 AM