Re: We need to protect our satellites

From: Henk Boonsma (hboonsma_at_teranet.news)
Date: 11/20/04 

Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 14:38:44 +0100

"Steve Dufour" <stevejdufour@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:744cc401.0411192035.680d8774@posting.google.com...
> Analysis:Can Iran alter US space strategy?
>
>
> By Hil Anderson
> UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
>
>
> Beverly Hills, CA, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell's
> blockbuster allegation that Iran's mullahs were on the verge of
> fielding nuclear missiles was a grave warning sign that the days of
> the United States' military's virtual monopoly on outer space could be
> numbered.
>
>
> The American military's technical prowess has given it a dominance in
> space-based systems, which leads to the logical likelihood that its
> enemies could look for ways to attack and destroy the satellites that
> U.S. troops routinely use to monitor enemy forces on the ground and
> handle the steady flow of communications between units in the field
> and commanders who are sometimes thousands of miles away.
>
> "We are getting so dependent on them (satellites) that we are creating
> a target," said Thomas Moorman, a retired Air force general and
> current vice president of the defense consulting firm Booz Allen
> Hamilton. "We have to worry about protecting those satellites; we have
> to take away those tempting targets."

The solution is pretty straightforward: maneuver the satellites when a
target drone is incoming. That is why the Air Force is fielding refueling
robot satellites.