The United States has deployed weapons in space and will use them to defend American forces, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday – the first public acknowledgment of such capabilities in orbit and a deliberate signal to those that pose potential threats in the domain.

“China develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernization strategy,” the US Space Force says on its website, while “Russia views space as a warfighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts.”

US military officials have repeatedly warned the two countries are testing new offensive space capabilities, citing examples such as Russian satellite constellation training missions that Washington says could demonstrate “attack and defend tactics” for future combat and China’s development of a nuclear capable partial-orbit hypersonic missile.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Weapons in space.

    No universal healthcare.

    Massive wealth disparity only getting worse.

    Women losing rights.

    Democracy threatened.

    Inflation.

    Student debt epidemic.

    Poison food.

    Resurging racism.

    Climate change.

    Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

  • FilthyHands@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    “Good evening, I’m Jess Perkins with Casey Wong. Top story: Santa Barbara. 10,000 acres of wooded residential land were scorched in an instant when a laser cannon aboard the Strategic Defense Peace Platform misfired today during routine startup tests. Casey?”

    “Yes, it was a day of mourning for the families of 113 known dead at this hour. Among them: two former United States presidents who had retired in the Santa Barbara area. A day of mourning for a country.”

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Really annoying how certain media outlets treat every single thing the US military says as fact without independently verifying it themselves

  • RamRabbit@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Was bound to happen. Honestly surprised it took this long.

    Meink did not provide specifics on the weapons and, when asked to expand, refused to provide additional details.

    Aww, was hoping for some broad strokes. If I had to guess, they focus on anti-satellite arms. Small missile launchers and lasers come to mind. (lasers work significantly better in space, though getting the power and cooling for them is much harder)

    Edit: I just remembered a notable part of Golden Dome is to have ballistic missile protection in the mid-course phase, which necessitates the interceptors loitering in space.

    • RamRabbit@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What are you gonna do throw solar panels?

      You don’t need anything near that destructive. Even tiny grains intercepting other satellites at orbital speed will destroy them.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I mean put a 100lb tungsten rod in 1,000 satellites and they wouldn’t do “much” but surely they’d hit whatever they hit at a velocity that I cant see anyone countering shy of being in bunkers.

  • CH3DD4R_G0B-L1N@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    All the other signs of the end times were a misdirect and this is how it’s actually gonna end? I’ll admit, this is a nice twist, I think this reality’s writers got their groove back.