The US is reportedly one year away from testing a Mach 22 "aircraft" that can deliver up to 12,000 lbs of weapons on target anywhere on the planet in less than two hours.
Many countries complain about the possible future US deployment of space weapons systems. Some of these countries, e.g., Russia and China, have a very difficult time countering the strategic and tactical advantages the US gains thereby. They know that competing with the US in this area will be ultra expensive. Other countries, such as Canada, have previously complained about the possible deployment of US space based (or space use) weapons systems because they believe that if the the US foregos deployment then so will the Chinese and Russians. How realistic such an attitude may be is questionable for at least two reasons: arms limitations treaties (e.g., SALT) of the past have done nothing to slow secret weapons development (how can we construct a treaty that is intrinsically unverifiable?); and such an attitude ignores the large strategic and tactical advantages that the US derives from space based and space use platforms and that foregoing deployment means the US must give up these advantages.
As reported in Russia (it is interesting that they did not place themselves in the headline):
Quote:
Pentagon Spends Billions Developing Space Weapon Against China, Iraq and Iran
November 19, 2007
Pravda
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...xt=va&aid=7370
The Pentagon is spending billions of dollars on new forms of space warfare to counter the growing risk of missile attack from rogue states and the "satellite killer" capabilities of China.
Congress has allocated funds to develop futuristic weapons and intelligence systems that operate beyond the Earth's atmosphere as America looks past Iraq and Afghanistan to the wars of the future.
The most ambitious project in a new $459 billion defense spending Bill is the Falcon, a reusable "hypersonic vehicle" that could fly at six times the speed of sound and deliver 12,000lb of bombs anywhere in the world within minutes.
The bombs' destructive power would be multiplied by the Earth's gravitational pull as they traveled at up to 25 times the speed of sound toward their target.
The cost of the vehicle has not been revealed, but a spokesman for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) said a first test flight was scheduled for next year.
Loren Thompson, a leading defense analyst in Washington, said the focus of the project was attacking "time sensitive targets" in states such as North Korea and Iran, which have either developed nuclear weapons without international approval or are suspected of doing so, telegraph.co.uk reports.
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From DARPA's Tactical Technology Office (this is just what is published, who knows what the real development level of this program, or other black programs, might be):
Quote:
http://www.darpa.mil/tto/programs/falcon.htm
The Falcon program objectives are to develop and demonstrate hypersonic technologies that will enable prompt global reach missions. This capability is envisioned to entail a reusable Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload at a distance of 9,000 nautical miles from CONUS in less than two hours.
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Linear Mode
