USA TODAY (Oberg): HYPERVENTILATING OVER 'SPACE WEAPONS'

On 16 Jun 2005 10:18:42 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Ed Kyle"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

In Iraq, they've started using shaped charges
in the roadside bombs. That is why armor doesn't
matter anymore - and why a half-dozen Americans
are dying per day now instead of one. If the
bad guys get lucky one day, we might see such
weapons combined with ambush tactics to trap and
annihilate a sizable U.S. force. The next step
will be to make the stealthy anti-armor weapons
mobile.

Both sides are evolving tactics rapidly, which is what happens in war.

If we stay there long enough, it could be Goths
and Huns all over again.

Not an apt analogy--but the war won't be over until there have been a
few more regime changes in the region. Absent support from
neighboring governments and foreign fighters, the "insurgency" would
probably have already sputtered to a halt.

We here in the states won't have to worry too
much - until we start seeing daily car bombs in
our cities.

That is a worry, with continuing technology development, but it's not
one that will be ended by appeasing these creatures.

Allen Thomson wrote:

Yes:

http://www.fas.org/spp/military/prog.../at_960610.htm
http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/civilsat.htm

Dated in terms of some examples (I thought the LEO comsats
might actually make it), but the overall concerns remain.



It was that perceived threat of loss of satellites in wartime that led
to the development of minisatellites that have a surge launch
capability, like the experimental MUBLCOM- designed to be launched eight
at a time via a Pegasus launch vehicle.
Since the enemy's ASATs would probably be launched one at a time (at
least DART showed that a ASAT-like vehicle goes up on the same
approximate type of vehicle that can carry eight MUBLCOM small military
comsats) you'd end up having the same effect on required ASAT numbers
that MIRVing of ICBM warheads did to required ABM numbers; it simply
wouldn't be economically feasible to build the number of ASATs needed to
successfully do the intended job, or the C&C infrastructure to operate
that many ASATs on their individual intercept missions.

Pat