Sign in / up

back to article US doesn't need orbital battlefleet - pundit

A heavyweight Washington thinktank has issued a report which says that it makes no sense for the USA to build an enormous, horribly beweaponed space battle fleet in the immediate future. Normally, one might say "duh, thanks for the tip", or similar, but in fact there are a fair number of people in and around the US capital who …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Fred

    Options for getting them back again remain unclear at present

    Send them with a pack of stamped addressed bodybags?

    0 0
  2. Nick Palmer

    Kosiak's distinction

    Kosiak draws a distinction between militarisation and weaponisation; in this sense isn't a more valid comparison to be drawn not with the dreadnought races of the early 20th Century, but rather the early militarisation of the air. Early aircraft were primarily initially used by the military as an intelligence gathering tool also, and initial attempts to give them combat capability were...well...."Just fly above the other chap and drop this hand grenade on him, will you?"... That said, we saw rapid progress in the aerial theatre.

    0 0
  3. Richard
    Coat

    The real reason...

    is that Games Workshop owns the copyright on Space Marines ;)

    0 0
  4. James Summerson
    Alien

    Nukes? Who needs them?

    You don't need nukes for your Death Star fleet. Dropping big enough rocks onto your target is more than enough to stop any problem - see Footfall by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle.

    Even a 'Project Thor' would be enough of a deterrent to most operations and have maximum 'Shock & Awe' value...

    0 0
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Mars

    US Space Navy! "If you aren't an Illegal Alien, you have nothing to fear"

    I remember the good old times when the "UN Space Navy" was meant to defend Earth from Aliens, and it didn't shy away from hiring disturbingly cute female officers either:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.N._Spacy

    "But after the Cold War against the UN was won by General Bolton, the US assumed in-depth defense of Earth against the Sandnigra Empire and assorted Yellow Forces."

    0 0
  6. Curtis W. Rendon
    Alien

    @Nukes? Who needs them?

    or before Footfall, Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".

    0 0
  7. Michael

    To be fair

    ...some of the fastest development of technology could arguably be attributed to the Cold War arms race. A space weapon cold war would undoubtedly spur on the same rapid development, in a way that civilian spaceflight could never hope to.

    0 0
  8. lglethal Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    As Plato once said...

    "How Ironic that the greatest forge of civilisation is war."

    Bring on the space race, i say!

    0 0
  9. Rob Haswell
    Flame

    Nukes? It's space, let's just drop things on them

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

    Deorbiting tungsten rods onto targets at 5km/s? I'll take one of those, please.

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.