Source:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/01/11/empire-nothing-fear-chineseUS Empire has nothing to fear from ChineseBoffin says anti-satellite strategy will not workBy Nick Farrell: Friday, 11 January 2008, 11:25 AM
THE FORMER British colony of Virginia has nothing to fear from China’s current anti-satellite method of warfare.
Talking to Wired, MIT researcher Geoffrey Forden has looked at what he thinks China’s current method of knocking out US satellites is, and claims it will not work.
China’s main method seems to be to ram satellites with other satellites or rockets. He said that for this to work China would have to preposition its ASAT-tipped missiles and their mobile launchers in remote areas of China, one position for each satellite.
These satellites are about as reliable as a British Leyland gearbox and so the Chinese will have to have several of these pointed at the same satellite. These positions will only work at a certain time of day, so the chances of a first strike in a space war would be impossible.
Meanwhile, the US could, if it wished to initiate hostilities, destroy the rockets before they were launched using either stealth bombers or cruise missiles. It could wait and use its National Missile Defense interceptors.
While China could still knock out a few of the low orbit satellites, the US could save a lot of these by slowing down the speed of their orbits.
Of course there is no reason China would want to declare any war on the US. It owns most of the former colony’s industry and you never want to miff most of your customers by going to war with them. If China did want to go to war with the US it could destroy it in a week by refusing to ship its any goods.
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Source:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/01/11/empire-nothing-fear-chinese
