A U.S. Navy cruiser blasted a disabled spy satellite with a pinpoint missile strike that achieved the main mission of exploding a tank of toxic fuel 130 miles above the Pacific Ocean, defense officials said.
Destroying the satellite’s onboard tank of about 1,000 pounds of hydrazine fuel was the primary goal, and a senior defense official close to the mission said Thursday that it appears the tank was destroyed, and the strike with a specially designed missile was a complete success.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the shootdown, which came late Wednesday as he began an eight-day, around-the-world trip on which he likely will face questions about the mission.
Back in 1980, I wrote a paper called [i]The Possibility of War In Space[/i]. In it, I detailed from open sources that an F-15 could launch an ASAT missile known as ALMV (Air-Launched Miniature Vehicle) from maximum altitude and “shoot down” enemy satellites. This missile was also called the “flying tomato can”.
Make no mistake, this missile test yesterday was not a simple demonstration that the U.S. can knock down a satellite. We have had that proven capability since 1985.
The Chinese recently demonstrated that they could knock out our satellites, making us blind, limiting our communications, and destroying our navigation systems. We just demonstrated that we can knock out in-coming ballistic missiles. We didn’t just destroy a satellite, we fired a missile from a moving ship and it hit a pin point target in space,[i]the fuel tank[/i] on the satellite, at 17,000 miles per hour.
As an old Cold War warrior, I recognize a shot across the bow when we shoot one.
In the 1980’s, opponents of Mr Reagan’s space defense initiative kept arguing it would never work, and was a big waste of money. The Soviet Union also opposed it vehemently.
I remember being touched, that our good friends the Soviets didn’t want us to waste our money.
“Bravo Zulu,” Navy!
The US is in tight spot. We are dependent on our satellites for almost all communication, military cooridination, and most importantly cable tv. IF China, or anybody else, wanted to sink our ship, just shoot down our space tech. With the loss of cable tv- our society would be rioting in the streets and completely confused and bewildered.
I hope the Iranians in particular are paying attention to this.
Acknowledging all the above, we also kept the payload out of enemy hands. Way cool!
We also proved that we have leaders who aren’t afraid to “push the envelope” and demonstrate to China that we say what we mean, and we mean what we say. China’s more concerned about “losing face.”
#4, that’s one reason we’re working on “hardened” satelites, either passive defenses (making them tougher, for example) or active (more manuverable & harder to hit, perhaps even eventualy defensive weapons). Also why we’re starting a push to build in back ups to the sat systems, like keeping the old guidance systems in cruise missiles in addition to GPS.
A pleasant reminder that yes, the USN is in fact all that.
Ed the Roman
CDR, USN (Ret)
The video of the launch and the kill are way cool.
#4 “With the loss of cable tv- our society would be rioting in the streets and completely confused and bewildered. ”
We may never learn who America’s next Idol will be!
So we have said to China, Russia, Iran or anyone else that was complaining – You put your war missile up there then be assured we can knock it out. China and Russia will pause and think. I’m not so sure about Iran yet.
As a guy, I loved watching this. Not so sure about the policy end, but a great show.
12- “China and Russia will pause and think. I’m not so sure about Iran yet. ”
I’m not sure if the President of Iran is paid to think, as Bill Mauldin once put matters.
SM3 is the direct outgrowth of the LEAP part of SDI, which was dismissed as “StarWars”. People can now see that SDI could and will work.