Senator: U.S. Offensive Space Abilities A Must

[Meeker Morgan]

Aviation Week

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/KYL01307.xml

The United States cannot trust that China will restrain itself against exploiting space for weapons and other military uses, and it must bolster its defensive and offensive capabilities high above the Earth, a longtime Senate proponent of missile and space systems said Jan. 29.

Conservative Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, a leading Republican party policymaker in that chamber, also asserted that further arms control agreements regarding space could be "dangerous" in limiting the United States while adversaries continue their developments.

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"The bottom line is this: We must not jeopardize our warfighters in the name of preserving an indefensible distinction between space and nonspace weapons,"

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Kyl lamented that the Pentagon has not indicated that its space-related budget was going to get boosted in response to Chinese developments and in fact, it has pared down several programs. He also criticized the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review for calling for only reversible ASAT capabilities such as electronic jamming rather than "kill" capabilities.

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Just let that sink in.

[Cobalt-60]

1. Space Based weapons are a losing proposition

A planetary orbit is the equivalent of a fixed address. they always know where the orbiting target is going to be.
Any object placed into orbit can be shot down by a smaller, cheaper, rocket that doesn't even need to make orbit.
It just needs to strew a handful of gravel into the path of the orbiting system.
The only parties served by space based weapons are the war profiteers eager to soak the treasury for them.

[Zynx]

2. Well put. Physics does not favor space weaponry.

[nealmhughes]

3. Nor do dollars or euro or yuan...or rubles, etc. An expedition to Mars on the other hand...

now that would be kewl!

[struggle4progress]

4. Well, Kyl always tries to be as offensive as possible