Reply With Quoteinteresting
Vulerable sattelites chart. Chinese ASAT.
interesting
Weapons are getting more advanced. Cat and mouse continues
New Stealth Spy Satellite Debated on Hill
LOL, just over 2 years ago.Originally Posted by Midav
Weapons are getting more advanced. Cat and mouse continues
New Stealth Spy Satellite Debated on Hill
hmmm intresting...russia doesnt have any communication eh..
It s only a chart about LOW orbit sat, most other sat and almost all comsat are highter (up to 35 800km).
This is correct, most of the "critical" systems are not at risk to the Chinese direct ascent system. GPS, for example, is just too dense and too redundant - and the Chinese depend on it for their own weapons!
SDS, COMINT, and other assets are either too high or in orbits too eccentric for the Chinese system to hit.
They can attempt to hit US imaging intelligence satellites, but as the cited article on "MISTY" highlights, the US has capabilties already fielded that makes this potentially futile. The first *known* low observable imaging satellite was launched in 1989, and it is likely that some precursor systems were fielded earlier. There is a long, long history of US investment in this capability. If someone is really interested I could probably dig up some interesting US patents from the 1970s that indicate there was a classified test activity from the late 1960s onwards.
Either way, targeting a US imaging satellite does not win China much in a conflict. A Radar Ocean Recon satellite is a more tempting target, but the reality is that the US is much less dependant on these in the 21st century. A direct ascent ASAT system does not threaten a GlobalHawk, after all.
The reality is that during a conflict, SKYNEWS is a much more tempting target for China. Cutting off all of the illicit satellite TV dishes in their own country would serve their interests.
So does this mean that corporations might have a legitimate excuse to develop ASAT countermeasures?
As far as I know, the chinese had to relocate the target satellite in the final approach phase, otherwise the ASAT missile would have missed...
A rather interessting detail, I think.
Fakum12, Any source on that adjustment?
The question is who would suffer most from loosing their satelites, I guess the Chinese belives the US/ the rest of the world would.
Well just my thoughts, I'm no expert on space warfare
My original source is unaviable (because the article was moved to a paid section of the site which I have no access to), but here (http://space.newscientist.com/articl...ace-fears.html) is another article. The last sentence says: "The satellite's orbit was raised just before the test, which may have alerted observers to an impending test."
I the article I read it was a bit more detailed. They quoted a scientist which said that this change in orbit was done in the same way like when an object in space prepares to rendvouz which another one. A slight change in the flight path.
His conclusion was that they are not able to hit a small object on a given path (which is the tricky part) so they had to alter the path of the object....
GPS satelites coud be a nice target- no more JDAM (the GPS guided one) and a lot of navigation would be busted (there are old backup systems but in a time of war this could be quite a hassle for USA)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16707330/page/2/
"U.S. tracking systems have provided additional information about the trajectories of the spacecraft during the test, and of the orbital debris that resulted from the test, Oberg said.
More thorough analysis no longer suggests that the target satellite might have maneuvered before the attack in order to line up with the interceptor," he said in an e-mail. "All indications now are that the missile was launched toward the north and closed in from ahead and slightly to the side of the target's path."
Also keep in mind this is not an operational weapons system. It's more of a technology demonstrator.
I posted this question at another thread, but no one answered it. So, I am posting it again: Can US or Russia attack a satellite at 12,600 miles altitude?
Posting Permissions
