[Rictor]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38272-2005Mar15?language=printer

The Pentagon is working to develop a suborbital space capsule within the next five years that would be launched from the United States and could deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within two hours, defense officials said.

John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nongovernmental defense think tank, said yesterday that the Falcon and CAV programs will allow the United States "to crush someone anywhere in world on 30 minutes' notice with no need for a nearby air base."

[redsniper]

wait... 'deliver conventional weapons' as in drop 2000 lb bomb or as in drop a crate of rifles?

[Rictor]

...take an educated guess.

Its sterilized military-speak. "Deliver conventional weapons" mean make a 10 foot deep hole in the ground where a house used to be.

[redsniper]

KABOOM!

[Bobboau]

cool

maybe we can get that orbital death cannon soon!

[Drew]

according to a strict interpretation of the second ammendement, i should have one of these

[FireCrack]

"Ion cannon ready"

[Ace]

If they can be used to deploy "conventional" weapons, only slight modifications would be needed for nuclear warheads.

Of course some of the current "conventional" weapons are just as devastating as a low-yield nuke...

[Black Wolf]

They should try to dress it up as a defensive weapon in case we get invaded by aliens.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

a question...while i realize that a strategic nuke is not considered conventional, how do they place a low yield tactical nuke?

[Ford Prefect]

Just below the Richard Simmons exercise tapes.

[Rictor]

Originally posted by Black Wolf
They should try to dress it up as a defensive weapon in case we get invaded by aliens.

ahem

Check out the headline.

[Swamp_Thing]

If i were a head of state of some country, i would be making arrangements to get a satelite-killer weapon up there aswell. And pretty soon you wouldn´t be able to leave the damn planet because your ship would collide with one of the million space debris that would be floating up there...
Space should be weapon-free. If not, what´s keeping some other country from using the moon as a base for a satelite turkey shoot? Or worst.
I envision that in a near future every space-able nation will be placing a similar trinket up there, and then it will be a matter of time before the borders of each individual nation gets extended upwards, like a bigger national air-space. Wich wouldn´t be all that bad, come to think of it.  Just how high does a country´s air-space goes, right now? 20km? 30? Just raise that to 3000 km, and we would be fine, as at that height you can´t keep a geo-stationary satelite without resorting to engines thrust.

On a side note, there is no need to have a nuclear platform up there, since chances are there is one already. And the russians have one too. They just don´t "advertise" that they do.

[Rictor]

Well, the US has the billions to finance their toys. Other nations, even Russia and China, don't have anywhere NEAR the military budgets.

[karajorma]

It doesn't take billions to make a satallite killer though. A kinetic strike should take care of anything that annoys you.

[Swamp_Thing]

What most people seem to forget is that it is extremelly easy to get a nuclear platform up there in orbit. Nukes in orbit are basically free-falling objects. They give them a slight push in the right direction, and gravity does the rest. So there is no need for a huge rocket to make it fly. A MIRV is about the size of a big TV (in size, not in shape), so you can fit a regular sized satelite with a dozen of them, with no problems. Then stuff it in a rocket or hitch a ride with the space-shuttle, and you are off. When you need to bomb some country into oblivion, just have the orbit of your platform fly over your target, release it, and watch the fireworks. It´s even better because no radar will ever see them coming, as they are too small to be picked up. And booommm!! Instant gratification!
Basically any country that has nukes can get one of those. Just hire a rocket from the ESA or NASA, load your pseudo "communications" satelite (who would know, right?), and that´s it. So i guess there are quite a few countries that could do it without breaking a sweat. Most countries have their own satelite up there already anyway, so...
Even Portugal has at least one sat. up there. Only ours is a real comms sat, not a weapon disguised as one. I think...

[Zarax]

Oh, finally they're resuming the cold war plans, just in time to be a step ahead of the world...
Next decade Russia and China will take their countermeasures, satellite killers aren't an all new tech after all...

[Carl]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing
what´s keeping some other country from using the moon as a base for a satelite turkey shoot? Or worst.

You see, I've turned the moon into what I like to call a "Death Star."

[Bobboau]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing
what´s keeping some other country from using the moon as a base for a satelite turkey shoot?

the same thing thats stopping them now, the absurd cost of such a venture.

[Flipside]

Personally, I fail to see the need for yet another way to attack your enemies at range, it's not as if America don't already have enough weapon systems to attack anyone that they'd dare attack with this anyway. I don't see China accepting an orbital bombardment platform as a defensive measure, and we still don't know the contents nor purpose of a large percentage of their own Space Program.