"We are changing the way targeting is done across the joint community when it comes to space and electromagnetic warfare."

US Space Force creates 1st unit dedicated to targeting adversary satellites::The United States Space Force has activated its first and only unit dedicated to targeting other nations’ satellites and the ground stations that support them.

  • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    36·
    2 years ago

    US Space Force: “Stop laughing, we really do have a purpose!”

    Things could get interesting if they start competing with the Navy to be another taxi service for the Marines though.

    • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      2 years ago

      I’m willing to bet that the Navy will take over the task of commanding spaceships when we start with the space imperialism

  • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    341·
    2 years ago

    Man why do they have to make these cringey symbols for units like these? This is space, we should have something cooler.

    • ramielrowe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      2 years ago

      From the article, “These systems range from ground-based lasers that can blind optical sensors on satellites to devices that can jam signals or conduct cyberattacks to hack into adversary satellite systems.”

    • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 years ago

      I was about to comment “I wonder what techniques they’ll use to disable satellites without blowing them to dangerous smithereens.”

      But I see you’ve assumed they’re idiots and will do exactly that. I think you could give people a little more credit. They’re at least as knowledgeable as you, random internet person.

      • FMT99@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        I mean on the one hand they probably know what they’re doing, on the other hand they think a skull in a triangle makes them look cool. Just saying.

      • deafboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        It wouldn’t be the first time a military would blow up something in orbit just to see it go kaboom.

        But wait! There’s more. My favorite space fuckup is the West Ford project. What’s better than crushing the existing satellites into million pieces, you ask? Skipping the satellite phase, and bringing up the millions of pieces just to releaae them into orbit deliberately.

        The West Ford project conducted by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory for the US Air Force in the early 1960s was a notable example. The project’s purpose was to create an 8 km (5 mi) wide, 40 km (25 mi) thick band of tiny copper wire segments in a near-polar orbit around the Earth as a passive radio reflector for military communications. In the first attempted deployment, in October 1961, the payload failed to disperse as planned. Eventually, seven small objects from the failed attempt were catalogued as orbital debris. The objects, with radar cross-sections between 0.06 m2 (0.6 ft2) and 0.6 (6.5 ft2), are still in orbit at an altitude of about 3,600 km (2,250 mi). A second West Ford project deployment attempt in May 1963 carried a payload of 480 million copper needles, each 1.8 cm (0.7 in.) long and 0.00178 cm (0.0007 in.) in diameter. Project planners expected solar radiation pressure to deorbit the needles in only a few years. However, only one-fourth to one-half of the needles dispersed as planned. Most remained in clumps that were more resistant to orbital decay. Eventually, 144 clumps from that attempt were identified and tracked; forty-six of them remained in orbit in 2013, but only nine of them had perigees less than 2,000 km (1,240 mi). Individual needles are too small to track.

        The History of Space Debris - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University