http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=9204
Source: Helium
Space weaponry has been the focus of military men since the Nazi German High Command began exploring the concept as far back as the late 1930s.
Following WWII and the advent of atomic weapons, the USSR and USA began to compete for domination of Earth orbit. Both realized the strength contained in the age-old military axiom of taking the high ground.
As the European and Asian shooting war evolved into what became known as the Cold War, the Soviet empire dropped a curtain of secrecy around the Baltic states and Eastern Europe. Then they stunned the world when from behind—what Sir Winston Churchill had dubbed—the "Iron Curtain" rose a modified ballistic missile that successfully inserted the world's first artificial satellite called Sputnik 1 into orbit.
The date was October 4, 1957 and marked the beginning of the space race. But as the US feverishly raced to catch up, the two emerging superpowers also ramped up their missile technologies mating warheads to ICBMs and developing a strategy that became known as MAD: mutual assured destruction.
Thus, the world's most dangerous weapons were trained on the populace of each country's adversary effectively creating a stalemate of terror so unimaginable that neither side had a policy to fire first.
Meanwhile, the Cold War escalated in space with more sophisticated unmanned satellites. Mostly used for spying, some platforms were being considered as missile platforms. Ostensibly, both powers backed down from establishing any orbital weapons platform armed with nuclear weapons, but the technology was not advanced enough to confirm each was telling the other the truth. Supposed satellite missions could easily have been camouflaging actual space weapons systems.
As the decades marched forward, each nation developed blueprints for fantastic weapons designed to checkmate their adversary from the high ground—near earth orbit.
By the 1980s, the United States had developed a plan to create a three-tiered missile defense shield within a radically advanced military program called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
On the other side of the world, the Soviets had worked for years on ground-based directed energy weapons: lasers, high-powered microwave masers, and exotic particle beam weapons. Evidence exists that the USSR tested these weapons (both anti-satellite and ABM capable). Here is a declassified Defense Department photograph from 1980of a suspected particle beam weapon installation that was located in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
Unable to invest more monies into their own military weapons development program to keep up with the advanced technology of the SDI program, the Russians abandoned their plans to build directed energy weapons across the USSR, create their own SDI ABM program, and canceled their space shuttle program. They also scrapped their plans for lunar missions.
As the USSR infrastructure imploded, America redoubled its efforts in space. Now, in the early years of the 21st Century, the US has made giant leaps with orbital weapons technology and has developed platforms, systems and capabilities that are leaving the Russian Federation and China far behind.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) MAHEM project
The late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the British science fiction writer and futurist, once wrote a novel ("Earthlight") that featured an advanced space weapons system employing powerful electromagnets to fire spurts of melted exotic metal alloys at hypersonic speed to destroy enemy assets.
DARPA is working on a system exactly like that named "MAHEM" (Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition). Insiders claim it's working better than expected.
Space cannons
For those that think space cannons are only hardware found in science fiction stories or films, the USSR tested one out as long ago as the late 1960s. The space station Almaz, built during the depths of the ongoing Cold War was more military than civilian. Armed with a powerful space cannon to intercept satellites or enemy spacecraft, the Russians supposedly tested it on an unmanned craft. How well it worked is unknown.
China and the US are working on more modern versions of the space cannon. The up-to-date models use energy waves—powerful radio bursts or modified masers.
Anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles
The US, Russia and China have been working for years on the capability of taking out enemy satellites with the push of a button. Offensive ASAT systems have been tested by all three countries. During 2009 reports circulated that the Chinese successfully tested an ASAT using one of their older weather satellites as the target.
A year earlier, the US intercepted and destroyed a malfunctioning surveillance satellite with a system launched from sea.
The X-37B and "Rods from God"
After a mission that lasted 7 months, the USAF secret X-37B mini-space shuttle returned during early December 2010. More missions are scheduled. The craft, a robotic Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is designed to be a "launch on demand" space capable platform that could do all kinds of work for the military. It has the advantages of speed, stealth and surprise.
Some insiders in the aerospace industry claim that the OTV successfully tested a weapons system called the "Rods from God." The weapon sets off explosive bolts and fires harpoon-like tungsten rods at targets on Earth. The kinetic energy upon impact can equal a low-yield nuclear device without the radiation.
No confirmation of a test has been forthcoming. "Secretive X-37B robot space plane returns to Earth"
Parasitic microsatellites
If the 1950s through 1960s was the era of the Space Race, the early 21st Century may well be the era of the microsatellites. The technological advancement of these tiny satellites is astounding and experts estimate that some versions are already into their 5th generation. The microsatellites are another version of the ASAT programs.
Back in 2001, China claimed the development of "parasitic microsatellites" engineered to seek out enemy satellites, attach themselves to it like barnacles to the hull of a sailing ship, and then self destruct taking the enemy satellite with them. Reportedly the Department of Defense wrote several papers about the Chinese tests.
Although reports of this advancing technology have officially "gone dark" some chatter at Hughes and Lockheed hints that quite a number of countries are following up on advanced versions of microsatellites including the UK, India, Iran, Russia, China, Canada and, of course, the US.
Since these are general details of programs that are either under development or currently being tested, what may actually be deployed is relatively unknown. Since the military has a penchant for releasing information on technology that is a decade or more behind their very advanced "black projects" it may be safe to assume that all of these systems are close to being archaic when compared to the leading edge exotic space weapons technology that currently exists but is only revealed in very limited circles on a need-to-know basis.
Unless a hobby kit company inadvertently comes out with a model of a black project military weapons system (like the hobby model company Revell did when it stunned the Pentagon and shipped toy stores a kit for the USAF's still top secret SR-71)…or a president spills the beans during a press conference (like Ronald Reagan did during the mid-1980s revealing the secret stealth aircraft)…it may not be until 2030 or later when the world discovers what was truly the most advanced aircraft, spacecraft and weapons systems back in the first decade of the new millennium.
Links
"Space: A sanctuary, the high ground, or a military mission?" Joseph E. Justin, Major, USAF [PDF]
USSTRATCOM
Vandenberg AFB
Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
As the European and Asian shooting war evolved into what became known as the Cold War, the Soviet empire dropped a curtain of secrecy around the Baltic states and Eastern Europe. Then they stunned the world when from behind—what Sir Winston Churchill had dubbed—the "Iron Curtain" rose a modified ballistic missile that successfully inserted the world's first artificial satellite called Sputnik 1 into orbit.
The date was October 4, 1957 and marked the beginning of the space race. But as the US feverishly raced to catch up, the two emerging superpowers also ramped up their missile technologies mating warheads to ICBMs and developing a strategy that became known as MAD: mutual assured destruction.
Thus, the world's most dangerous weapons were trained on the populace of each country's adversary effectively creating a stalemate of terror so unimaginable that neither side had a policy to fire first.
Meanwhile, the Cold War escalated in space with more sophisticated unmanned satellites. Mostly used for spying, some platforms were being considered as missile platforms. Ostensibly, both powers backed down from establishing any orbital weapons platform armed with nuclear weapons, but the technology was not advanced enough to confirm each was telling the other the truth. Supposed satellite missions could easily have been camouflaging actual space weapons systems.
As the decades marched forward, each nation developed blueprints for fantastic weapons designed to checkmate their adversary from the high ground—near earth orbit.
By the 1980s, the United States had developed a plan to create a three-tiered missile defense shield within a radically advanced military program called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
On the other side of the world, the Soviets had worked for years on ground-based directed energy weapons: lasers, high-powered microwave masers, and exotic particle beam weapons. Evidence exists that the USSR tested these weapons (both anti-satellite and ABM capable). Here is a declassified Defense Department photograph from 1980of a suspected particle beam weapon installation that was located in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
Unable to invest more monies into their own military weapons development program to keep up with the advanced technology of the SDI program, the Russians abandoned their plans to build directed energy weapons across the USSR, create their own SDI ABM program, and canceled their space shuttle program. They also scrapped their plans for lunar missions.
As the USSR infrastructure imploded, America redoubled its efforts in space. Now, in the early years of the 21st Century, the US has made giant leaps with orbital weapons technology and has developed platforms, systems and capabilities that are leaving the Russian Federation and China far behind.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) MAHEM project
The late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the British science fiction writer and futurist, once wrote a novel ("Earthlight") that featured an advanced space weapons system employing powerful electromagnets to fire spurts of melted exotic metal alloys at hypersonic speed to destroy enemy assets.
DARPA is working on a system exactly like that named "MAHEM" (Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition). Insiders claim it's working better than expected.
Space cannons
For those that think space cannons are only hardware found in science fiction stories or films, the USSR tested one out as long ago as the late 1960s. The space station Almaz, built during the depths of the ongoing Cold War was more military than civilian. Armed with a powerful space cannon to intercept satellites or enemy spacecraft, the Russians supposedly tested it on an unmanned craft. How well it worked is unknown.
China and the US are working on more modern versions of the space cannon. The up-to-date models use energy waves—powerful radio bursts or modified masers.
Anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles
The US, Russia and China have been working for years on the capability of taking out enemy satellites with the push of a button. Offensive ASAT systems have been tested by all three countries. During 2009 reports circulated that the Chinese successfully tested an ASAT using one of their older weather satellites as the target.
A year earlier, the US intercepted and destroyed a malfunctioning surveillance satellite with a system launched from sea.
The X-37B and "Rods from God"
After a mission that lasted 7 months, the USAF secret X-37B mini-space shuttle returned during early December 2010. More missions are scheduled. The craft, a robotic Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is designed to be a "launch on demand" space capable platform that could do all kinds of work for the military. It has the advantages of speed, stealth and surprise.
Some insiders in the aerospace industry claim that the OTV successfully tested a weapons system called the "Rods from God." The weapon sets off explosive bolts and fires harpoon-like tungsten rods at targets on Earth. The kinetic energy upon impact can equal a low-yield nuclear device without the radiation.
No confirmation of a test has been forthcoming. "Secretive X-37B robot space plane returns to Earth"
Parasitic microsatellites
If the 1950s through 1960s was the era of the Space Race, the early 21st Century may well be the era of the microsatellites. The technological advancement of these tiny satellites is astounding and experts estimate that some versions are already into their 5th generation. The microsatellites are another version of the ASAT programs.
Back in 2001, China claimed the development of "parasitic microsatellites" engineered to seek out enemy satellites, attach themselves to it like barnacles to the hull of a sailing ship, and then self destruct taking the enemy satellite with them. Reportedly the Department of Defense wrote several papers about the Chinese tests.
Although reports of this advancing technology have officially "gone dark" some chatter at Hughes and Lockheed hints that quite a number of countries are following up on advanced versions of microsatellites including the UK, India, Iran, Russia, China, Canada and, of course, the US.
Since these are general details of programs that are either under development or currently being tested, what may actually be deployed is relatively unknown. Since the military has a penchant for releasing information on technology that is a decade or more behind their very advanced "black projects" it may be safe to assume that all of these systems are close to being archaic when compared to the leading edge exotic space weapons technology that currently exists but is only revealed in very limited circles on a need-to-know basis.
Unless a hobby kit company inadvertently comes out with a model of a black project military weapons system (like the hobby model company Revell did when it stunned the Pentagon and shipped toy stores a kit for the USAF's still top secret SR-71)…or a president spills the beans during a press conference (like Ronald Reagan did during the mid-1980s revealing the secret stealth aircraft)…it may not be until 2030 or later when the world discovers what was truly the most advanced aircraft, spacecraft and weapons systems back in the first decade of the new millennium.
Links
"Space: A sanctuary, the high ground, or a military mission?" Joseph E. Justin, Major, USAF [PDF]
USSTRATCOM
Vandenberg AFB
Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
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