Satellite strike struck diplomacy, too

AP via Yahoo ^ | Sun Feb 24, 2:08 PM ET | CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent

[drc43]

In last week's space spectacular, a U.S. missile did more than turn a dead satellite into bits of space scrap. It also blew another hole in hopes that the world's nations could forge a treaty making outer space a weapons-free realm, analysts say.

Wednesday's orbiter shootdown by a U.S. Navy missile came just eight days after Russia and China, at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, submitted a draft treaty to ban weapons from space.

[hermgem]

Things would equal out or parity restored should Bill Clinton enter the White House again.
Military secrets for space technology such as carrier rockets were sold to China for campaign contributions.
Prior to obtaining this technology, Chinese rockets did not make it out of, or far beyond launching pads.
Bill if handed the opportunity would be the great leveler again.

[PapaBear3625]

Combined, that is over 8000 launchers. Now, we use those for air defense missiles, tomahawks for land attack, anti-ship missiles, etc, and of the standard missiles carried, most these days are standard 2 for high altitude fleet air defense. But the standard 3 is based on those, and if we really wanted them we could fit out half the fleet with the things, easily. It is just money at this point, the tech is there and proven.

The coming conflict with Iran would provide a good excuse to use up our S2 supplies, taking out any Iranian object that tries to fly near the Persian Gulf. And the re-orders will all be for S3

[bmwcyle]

And if the Sat dropped and cause damage that would have gotten the same response. The world socialist just want to complain.

[PapaBear3625]

The Japanese also have 4 of those DDGs again with 90 tubes each, and have successfully tested a standard 3 shot from them.

Perhaps we should ask the Japs to test a few of their S3s against the next North Korea missile test

[JasonC]

They cost $9.5 million apiece. If they are ever actually needed, cheap at the price, and we could have half the fleet fitted out with them for less than $40 billion. Obama wants to spend twice that on highway make-work to stimulate the economy (lol).

[arthurus]

A “weapons-free outer space” is really an “American weapons free outer space” and these people know that. They are the same folks who so ardently desire American defeat in a war overseas and American defeat and dissolution in the Second Mexican War or maybe it’s the Aztlan War.

[Steamburg]

Drivel, just drivel. This could have been written by Madam Almostbright. They just don’t like us to win.

[Williams]

No they don't see us as N Korea's moral equivalent - they see us as moral inferiors. It is really sick the way they try to make us be against our own country having the capacity to protect us against dictatorships.

Plus, there have recently been articles revealing that China plans to defeat us by using space weapons. How despicable is it for the MSM to ignore that reality and pretend China wants to outlaw space weapons?

[JasonC]

"In December 2007, Japan conducted a successful test of the SM-3 block IA against a ballistic missile, aboard JDS Kongo (DDG-173). This was the first time a Japanese ship was selected to launch the interceptor missile during a test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System."

Those who know their history will recognize the ship name...

[Fiddlstix]

Wow! Let's see if I got this right?

The ChiComs "shoot" a satellite = Good
The U.S.A. "shoots" a satellite = BAD!

Hmmm....
Okay. I think I got it.....

[EBH]

...so what’s their beef?

We just demonstated that:

we could hit a target no bigger than a schoolbus,

we could strick the most important target on the satellite — its fuel tank,

we could blow it to bits using an unarmed missile,

at a speed of 27,000 kilometres per hour,

at an altitude of 247 kilometres above the Pacific,

the United States had not tested an anti-satellite weapon since 1985

[Walrus]

“Analyst: ...”

There are maybe 10,000 “analysts” of one form or another running around the country.

To find one or two who see a bad side to ANYTHING the U.S. does would not require a rocket scientist (pun intended).

Sorry, but the AP has zero credibility these days.

[Aglooka]

The countries that are complaining are countries that can’t afford their own anti-satellite programs.

Remember, the US and USSR signed an agreement not to produce biological weapons and the USSR had a massive secret program.

The USSR also put biologics into ICBM warheads.

[m1911]

Headline != story

The real story is paragraph 8:

‘In fact, the Russian-Chinese draft treaty doesn’t directly address this difficult area of ground-based systems that can “kill” satellites.’

[goldfinch]

"It seems to me we may never have had the opportunity to constrain the technology," he said. "It's pretty hard for me to see that happening now."

Bluntly, there is never an opportunity to constrain technology. This is not new. Once the genie is out of the bottle, there is no stuffing it back in. Hopefully, the people on this planet will learn to live in peace with each other before we wipe each other out. So far, so good.

[Elsiejay]

The beef is that the U. S. did it.

[drc43]

Well it should be very clear by now that the Press and the Libs just have utterly NO concept what it takes to defeat a threat.

They seem more willing to clean up the mess they cause after millions die. Prevention is beyond them.