Thursday, January 26, 2017

TASS — US general accuses Russia of covertly building anti-satellite laser weapons


Space wars, for real.
A senior US military official has accused Russia of covertly running various programs to enhance its anti-satellite capabilities, including designing laser weapons to use in space, the Department of Defense press service said.
Speaking at the Stanford University in California, Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, who heads the U.S. Strategic Command, accused Russia and China of building weapons in the low earth orbit and in the geosynchronous orbit, as well as systems to manage them from the ground.
"In the not-too-distant future, they (Russia and China) will be able to use that capability to threaten every spacecraft we have in space. We have to prevent that, and the best way to prevent war is to be prepared for war. So the United States is going to do that, and we're going to make sure that everybody knows we're prepared for war," he said.
Both Russia and China have repeatedly declared their commitment to the peaceful use of outer space and are members of the relevant United Nations Committee, COPUOS. The official said that Russia, which has had an anti-satellite capability since the 1980s, is now exploring significant anti-satellite capabilities, including lasers for use in space and other "capabilities that would threaten our satellites, and many of which would create debris" that could hinder access to space.
"We have to deter bad behavior in space and we have to deter conflict in space," the head of the Strategic Command said.
So let me get this straight. Russia and China are violating the no weaponization of space agreement by developing weapons to attack existing US weapons systems in space when it well known that US advanced weapons systems are dependent on satellites.

It's OK when we do it but not when anyone else does. Does that make any sense?

TASS


7 comments:

Ryan Harris said...

The space race has been in high gear for awhile now. No one in the public was paying attention to the military side though it was the industrial side that captured imaginations.

lastgreek said...

If you ask me, sex robots can't come soon enough ... for the sake of world peace, of course :)

Sex robots with fully functional genitalia to arrive next year and will cost up to £12,000

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/sex-robots-fully-functional-genitalia-9161419

Random said...

Nice find, lastgeek :-)

Random said...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trident-barack-obama-administration-david-cameron-failed-nuclear-missile-test-launch-secret-theresa-a7542756.html%3Famp

John said...

Washington initiated the militarization of space, expressly violating any number of treaty obligations. Russia, China and anybody else who feels threatened are going to do something about it.

The general is a propagandist. Lasers? Why, when missiles can do the job far more cheaply and just as effectively. If the Russkies launched dozens of their supersonic ICBMs at a US military satellite, there'd be no countermeasures that Washington could initiate to stop their toy being blown into a million pieces. Similarly with all these stupid missile shields. Years back a Chinese General simply replied that all the Chinese had to do was build missiles with so many warheads that if only a fraction got through the shield (which they would) they'd annihilate whatever they were targeting. The whole thing is clearly a way of siphoning even more money to the military-industrial complex, and has nothing to do with "defence".

GLH said...

Sounds like somebody wants more money.

Noah Way said...

US Space Weapons and Projects

Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) - Northrop Grumman
X-37B Space Plane
Air-Launched Miniature Vehicle (ALMV)
Project Thor (Kinetic Bombardment)
SM-3 (antiballistic-missile interceptor) deployed
Prompt Global Strike
...