behind in the development of an anti-missile
system to thwart advanced hypersonic weapons
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| Science & Technology |
| U.S. would need a mega-constellation to counter China’s hypersonic weapons |
| 2018-08-11 |
| Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin: “Our response has to be a proliferated space sensor layer, possibly based off commercial space developments." The Pentagon admittedly is already five to 10 years behind in the development of an anti-missile system to thwart advanced hypersonic weapons that are now being tested by China and Russia. The good news for the Defense Department is that the commercial space technology boom that is fueling the development of mega-constellations could help the military reach that goal. The Pentagon is studying options to build a space-based surveillance network to fill blind spots in the nation’s current defenses — which were designed to counter ballistic missiles that fly on a predictable arch-shaped pattern. To detect and track hypersonic weapons — which fly into space at supersonic speeds and then descend back down to Earth directly on top of targets — the answer is a large constellation of small satellites. “Our response has to be a proliferated space sensor layer, possibly based off commercial space developments,” said Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin. The hypersonic threat brings a “new urgency” that the United States has not seen since the Cold War and that demands a different type of thinking about the architecture, Griffin told reporters on Wednesday at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium. The only way to provide global coverage and not go bankrupt installing radars on the ground is to go to space. Griffin cautioned that the traditional approach to developing “exquisite” military satellites is not going to work in this case. The Pentagon already has a sophisticated network of early warning satellites that detect missile launches. Another layer of sensors will be needed in the future for “persistent, timely global, low-latency surveillance to track and provide fire control for hypersonic threats.” Details such as how many satellites, in what orbits, at what altitudes have yet to be worked out. The Missile Defense Agency, which Griffin oversees, was designated the Pentagon’s “executive agent” for hypersonic defense. Griffin said the United States for decades has conducted its own hypersonic weapons development but chose to not weaponize the technology. “Our enemies have, so we have to respond,” he said. “The first step in that response absolutely has to be a sensor layer from space.” There are no alternatives, “unless you plan to wallpaper the Earth with radars,” he said. This is not a mission that can be done realistically from the ground or the oceans. “You would need a lot of radars that are very expensive and themselves become targets,” Griffin said. “That’s not an acceptable defensive posture. The only way to see these things coming is from space.” The military’s early warning satellites in geosynchronous earth orbit cannot do this mission. “Hypersonic vehicles are hard to see from high orbit because they are not as bright. They’re a factor of 10 or more dimmer than strategic missiles. So we have to get closer to see them and track them.” ‘This can be done’ |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #11 ...seems the Ivy League's racial discrimination and lock on three letter agencies means humint is not going to be much in the cards. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-08-11 12:45 |
| #10 The senior management of those alphabet soup agencies has been focused on diversity and correct thinking for the past decade. Counting on them to do the messy work of spying against China would be hard since it would be “racist “...after all, China is full of Asians. |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2018-08-11 11:50 |
| #9 All I can say is turnabout is fair play - I trust one of our 3-letter agencies is working day/night to steal the shit out of their plans and nullify their '10-year' lead. I know they're also supposedly leading in quantum encryption. We better be stealing that shit too. |
| Posted by: Jack Bonaparte7513 2018-08-11 11:42 |
| #8 #1 Only need someone with the 'football' whom the enemy believes will actually use it. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2018-08-11 09:14 |
| #7 The Pentagon admittedly is already behind in the development of an anti-missile system to thwart advanced hypersonic weapons |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2018-08-11 08:34 |
| #6 If only we had a third leg of nuke deterrence, like, say, a submarine or three, Loaded with nuclear tipped missiles. Off their coast? Nahhhhh |
| Posted by: Frank G 2018-08-11 07:56 |
| #5 re: "new, untested solutions", not necessarily. There's been a lot of discussion between US officials and commercial microsat companies on this, emergency GPS backup and other missions. |
| Posted by: Snoluting Phomoth8901 2018-08-11 07:37 |
| #4 Or you can go after the manufacturing and launch points. |
| Posted by: Glirt Dingle2497 2018-08-11 05:29 |
| #3 You mean the answer is spending huge sums of money on new, untested solutions that will fail and make the defense industries rich? Wow, what an unusual conclusion. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2018-08-11 01:04 |
| #2 They are Correct. |
| Posted by: newc 2018-08-11 01:01 |
| #1 What about Mutual Assured Destruction? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2018-08-11 00:50 |