ASAT.
This is coolbert:
Lou Dobbs is talking this evening on CNN about the Chinese military threat.
Several items are mentioned. "Experts" as usual give their opinion.
"Then, two leading experts on China, Gordan Chang and Richard Fisher, explore the threatening and aggressive behavior of the communist nation's dangerous military buildup."
One item discussed is the surfacing of the Chinese SONG class submarine within five miles of a U.S. naval aircraft carrier battle group. Happened just recently. This came as a surprise to the U.S. naval forces? This submarine was undetected until it surfaced and only discovered by accident?
[surfacing would seem to be the Chinese sending a message to the American commander. We escaped detection and could have destroyed you if we wanted to. YOU DID NOT know we were here!]
The SONG class is an "indigenous" Chinese design? A diesel submarine, but having the "Albarcore" tear-drop shape hull. The Albarcore was a revolutionary design for it's time. Very much so. A test bed for new technologies just coming on line. Atomic power for submarines was just a few years off when the Albarcore began tests of it's very futuristic design. It was realized that atomic power would allow submarines very high speed underwater as power was more or less unlimited. Hydrodynamic design was needed for the greatest efficiency. The shape of the tuna fish was found to be the ideal [albacore?].
Also discussed is the latest test, successful, by the Chinese, of an anti-satellite missile. Giving the Red Chinese a capability they did not previously have.
"On January 11, 2007, China destroyed an old orbiting weather satellite, the world's first test since the 1980s."
This was the fourth test of such a missile? Three previous tests were unsuccessful? So says the "expert" [Chang].
Another "expert" [Fisher] states that this gives the Chinese a capability the U.S. does not have! We are way behind the Chinese in this area?
NO!
That is not so. The U.S. has HAD FOR SOME TIME NOW, an anti-satellite capability.
Called ASAT [anti-satellite].
Fired from a F-15 fighter plane in a zoom climb. A conventional jet fighter, the F-15, takes off, armed with an ASAT. Assumes a steep, ballistic climb [zoom}. Achieves a high altitude above the stratosphere, and then launches the ASAT at a predetermined spot in the sky.
The ASAT then fires it's rocket engine, and proceeds on course to intercept and destroy the target, using on-board guidance for the final approach and kinetic attack, NOT nuclear!
Using the F-15 in such a mode is a novel and excellent approach. Allows the missile [ASAT] to be employed in a flexible manner. Somebody was thinking when they came up with the current U.S. ASAT idea.
coolbert.
Labels: China
1 Comments:
Is China threat? Yes. However, i am more concerned about some of their more conventional weapons than anti-satellite stuff. That new sub of theirs could be dangerous. I am sure that in any conflict over Taiwan, they would be willing to loose a few if it resulted in US ships at the bottom of the Pacific, especially aircraft carriers or Aegis cruisers. Look how long we had to keep the USS Cole in drydock after that terror attack. I am sure that that fact was not lost on Chinese intelligence. We aren't building Liberty Ships anymore. Speaking of Chinese intelligence, I am sure that they have penetrated our security, probably on a number of levels. After all, they've got the plans for the W88.
In a future conflict, look for them to attack not only with their anti-satellite weapons, but probably with a cyber attack of sme kind. They also seem quite willing to accept casualties and loose ships, etc... I can see them invading Taiwan, using commercial flights filled with paratroopers to seize the airport at Taipei (they will have learned from the Russian assault in Kabul on Christmas Eve, 1979). Then, the US fleet suffers the loss of some key ships as they sail to counter the move.
The Chinese know that they cannot beat us in a war. But they don't have to. They can just make it too costly for us to win. They will say, "You can eject us from the airports and seaports in Taiwan. We are willing to loose 5,000, 10,000, 25,000 or more men. Are you? Remember, it will be on CNN! Is it really worth it? After all, this is an internal issue. In a few weeks, everything will be back to normal, so let's not disrupt the world economy, etc..."
On a related note, the USSR had some anti-satellite satellites at one point. I think one had a 20mm cannon on it. The other had guided bombs. I have been rying to find the info, but no success. It may have been in Popular Mechanics at some point in the pre internet days.
3:36 PM
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