Transparency Of Satellite Shootdown Offers Model
No shit, good point, Sir.
Not going to hold my breath that Russia, China, et al will actually follow our lead, but good point.
CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii, Feb. 21, 2008 - The way the United States handled the shootdown of a dead reconnaissance satellite last night offers a model of the transparency it encourages other countries more secretive about their military operations to adopt, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command said today.
Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating pointed to the huge difference between last night’s mission, aimed at destroying a satellite hurtling toward Earth, and the secret anti-satellite weapons test the Chinese conducted in January 2007.
“We’ve told people what we’re going to do; we’ve told them how we’re going to do it, and it’s very open,” Keating said.
The rationale behind the two missions was distinctly different, as well. President Bush decided to shoot down the satellite to preclude a danger to humans from hydrazine, a toxic fuel that would have been used to steer the satellite had it worked. The Chinese test, in contrast, was designed to test an anti-satellite weapon.
To carry out its mission, the U.S. fired a modified Standard Missile 3. The Chinese, in contrast, fired a specially designed anti-satellite weapon.
Keating told reporters he hopes the Chinese will learn from the U.S. model. “We would hope that they can see how to do an operation like this, emphasizing the transparency, emphasizing clear intentions, realizing –that while we don’t have press embedded on the ship — everybody knows what’s going on,” he said. “The Chinese did not do that when they launched their anti-satellite test. We hope there are some lessons that become apparent to them.”
U.S. defense officials have long encouraged China and other nations around the world to be more transparent about their military operations. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates encouraged more openness during his visit to China in November.
Keating visited China in January in an effort to bolster the two countries’ military relationship and promote improved communication. He told Pentagon reporters in November that solid communication between the United States and China will help reduce the potential for misunderstanding. This will leave “less room for confusion that could lead to confrontation, to crisis,” he said.
“That’s our goal,” he said. “To get there, we reduce the chance for misunderstanding.”
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This satellite provided a convenient opportunity for a demonstration and to send a warning to Russia and China that we can shoot down their satellites when and where we please. Why do think this thing was made public in the first place? Keating’s words about “transparency” don’t make much sense outside of that context, as they would only be empty platitudes wasted deaf ears. No, it was a clever and diplomatic ultimatum offered after a verifiable demonstration, wrapped in plausible deniability, so as to not rouse any unneeded anger.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:59 pmI saw the afteraction report by the Assistant Joint Chiefs Commander on C-Span. Man, you talk about a sharp report. Kudos to the folks involved with this op.
BTW, the Marine briefer said that there is nothing similar between shooting down a missile and shooting down a satelight. One is an arcing body that leaves the earth;’s atmosphere, another is in space and is not an arcing body.
The misile used had to be modified for this mission. It wasn’t in the same config as it would have been had this been a missile.
And we have no need of proving our ASAT capabilities anyways. We already did that back in the 80’s.
So Russia and China can go shit themselves for all I care. This was a completely different mission than a missile shootdown. Different config, different sensors, different software.
So Russia, China and the rest of our enemies should just STFU. Just be advised that we can also do incomming missiles the same way. So don’t try and fuck with us.
Last point: Hey Iraniac, we can also shoot down your shit.
Just try and launch a ballistic missile towards Israel.
The idea of transparency is meaningless to our enemies. They’ll make any excuse to copy us and call it a defense against the US or whatever tagiyya that they want to say.
Doesn’t matter how open and honest we are.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:28 pm