US space commander predicts satellite attacks

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) - The Air Force's new top commander for space predicted on Tuesday future attacks on U.S. satellites and called for greatly expanded tracking and identification of payloads launched by other countries.

Currently, U.S. efforts are focused on determining if an overseas launch is a ballistic missile or designed to put an object in orbit, then cataloging it over a period that can take weeks, said Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, who heads the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

"I say those days are over," he told an annual conference here on the fledgling, multibillion-dollar U.S. anti-missile shield. "If it's a space launch, we can't afford to relax."

"We need to know what the intent of that launch is," he said, including whether an object could jam or otherwise harm satellites or spread micro-satellites that could do so.

Chilton said his goal was to learn all this in the object's first orbit of the Earth so the United States could take unspecified actions "before an adversary can cripple us."

Warning of satelite attack

to tell you the truth i hadnt really given satelitte attacks too much thought. how probable do YOU guys think something like this is? i think there are much easier and just as crippling methods an adversary could take rather than take the time to do something like this. but then again, i dont know all the aspects of such an operation either.

People just keep trying to freak us out huh?

here is the link to the whole article:

Cherrio!
Digitalgrl

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[edit on 16/8/2006 by Mirthful Me]

A deliberate and well organized attack upon U.S. satellites, as part of a "first strike" scenario, could cause serious disruptions in our capability to defend ourselves.

1. Losing the Global Positioning System satellites would be devastating in that it would affect our ability to delivery "smart weaponry". Everything from cruise missiles to smart bombs would be practically useless. We would have to return to radar and simple navigation techniques just to place delivery systems on target (planes, subs, missile launchers) in order to fire . Then our degree of accuracy would suffer greatly.

2. We would be blind. Tracking ships, planes and missiles would have to rely on radar which is limited in range and scope. A nuclear missile launch would go undetected for many critical minutes. Our "Star Wars" missile defense system would be crippled.

3. Losing communications might be the worst aspect. Encrypted secure burst transmissions might not be possible, thus exposing our orders to our commanders and rendering any moves or defenses useless as our enemies intercepted our radio broadcasts to our troops.

Losing our satellite capabilities may be worse than nuclear strikes themselves. Our military might remain intact but it would be blind, deaf, and dumb as to the enemies intentions. This could allow a foreign power to invade at it's time of choosing, and forcing a land battle that we might not be able to win.

If we could take out any enemy's satellites first then we would have a big advantage.

We need a minimum reserve military fleet ready to be launched on expendable rockets as a back up system. The price may be very high but the price of losing a war would be much higher.

The electronic age is here to stay and along with it goes the responsibility to defend those assets as well as possible.

Killer satellites may very well already be up there just waiting to be activated.

Losing our satellite fleet would be a strategic blow that would cripple our defenses.

Wow, just the insight i was looking for RECDUDE. i couldnt agree with you more.


Digitalgrl

Of course, we are already testing out "adverse unsolicited maintenance" satellites both in LEO and in geosynch.

Which I think is a good idea.

It would be hard for me to believe that we hadn't thought of this possibility long, long ago and had already done something about it.

More fear mongering IMO.

Peace

[edit on 16-8-2006 by Dr Love]

Personally, I'm still reeling from the information that the USA has a space commander.


What's his name? Buzz Lightyear?

Sorry, I'm not trying to derail this thread. It's just that, while I've had to deal with a lot of space cadets over the years, this is the first I've heard that they apparently operate under some sort of chain of command. I had assumed the space cadets in my experience were working freelance.

I figure we've got beam weapons that will act as counter-terrorism devices. Plus, if you shoot an earth-based attack, our satelites should be just the tool to triangulate in on an attack, whether energy weapon or explosive .

.

You ought to live in Huntsville for a while. It's DIA and Space Defense Command all over town.

What's worse is that a couple of the biggies have(had) really amusing names. I think the former SPADOC commander was named "Lance Lord" (no, really) and one of his XO's was something like Dirk Daring or Steve Strong.

It's really hard to keep a straight face when you're introduced to Lance Lord, Commander of Space Defense.

Attacks upon satellites no longer need to be physical, but they can be done electronically. Any country that has supercomputers and those with the skills to hack the code can wage network warfare upon the United States as a precursor to all out war. The first step would be to hit our economy and infrastructure(electronically), then next would be satellites both military and civilian which would both hamper our communications and our ability to respond to the following physical attack. It sounds far fetched but entirely possible.

well it looks like i got a lot of well educated people on this topic posting on my thread. thank you for lending your expertise

so do you guys think that this is something that the terrorists (al quada) have the capability to use or is it something that would be far too sophisticated and it would have to be one countries intelligence doing it against another countries intelligence?
it just seems like it would be really hard to do from a little man hole in the desert

and can you imagine the kind of lines that space commander can use on woman? i mean it would be so simple "hey baby, want to sleep with a REAL space commander?" i mean if the guy can command space, he might be able to have power over alot of other things lololol

thanks again guys

Digitalgrl

[edit on 10/01/2004 by DigitalGrl]

Not Al-qaeda. China, yes. I believe that China is rumored to be working on it.

We are already testing LEO and geosynch versions of this. With some success, I might add.

I'm all up for grabbing someone's satellite assets and deorbiting them, spinning them off aimlessly or drilling large holes through the middle with a tiny breaching charge.

Deorbiting would, of course, be my choice. Hasta la vista, satellite! Leaves less of a mess in orbit.