Direct Hit

 

Go Navy!

1. One Shot, One Kill.. It’s the Navy Way! 
   (and also the USMC Way, lets give them credit too…

   Wasting ammo is a federal offense…

   RP

   Posted by Rat Patrol       02/21/2008  at  02:41 PM  



2. ....and RR is laughing from his grave at moonbats who said it was impossible. it was stuff from Star Wars. BARK! BARK!

   Posted by Rancino       02/21/2008  at  02:52 PM  



3. Thar she blows!

   Commander, USNR, Ret

   Posted by JimT       02/21/2008  at  06:05 PM  



4. I suspect that a great many moonbats claimed that this sort of thing is impossible because they WANTED it to be impossible.

   Luddites take many forms, and some are more sinister than others.

   

   Posted by Tannenberg       02/21/2008  at  07:43 PM  



5. I think they just sent a message to China and Russia. 

   Also, for those of you who remember Vilmar, he’s back to Blogging again.

   Posted by BobF       02/21/2008  at  10:38 PM  



6. Not only did Russia and China get the message, so did the Iranians.

   Posted by Macker       02/21/2008  at  11:05 PM  



7. Interesting point Macker. To be honest I am not convinced it was necessary to destroy the satellite. Given that it was full of hydrazine I’m fairly sure this would have burned up in the atmosphere. I think the US just wanted to demonstrate their technical superiority (again).
   One in the eye for the Ruskies and Chinese. What particularly impressed me was it was a one shot deal.

   Posted by LyndonB       02/22/2008  at  04:05 AM  



8. . .

   Posted by Dr. Jeff       02/22/2008  at  04:08 AM  



9. That’s what I think it was. I think it was “No, we don’t have any *specific* anti-satellite systems. That’s okay though, cos we don’t actually need em to take any of you guys, our off-the-cuff modifications can take care of that.” That and making sure there weren’t enough large pieces to make salvage and reverse engineering possible. I’ve worked with intel people before, it’s amazing how anal and obsessive both they and their counterparts can get about little details.
   Remember the new Navy rail gun that can fire a slug 200 miles at mach 8? Betcha that one could be adapted to anti-sat warfare easily enough.

   Posted by GrumpyOldFart       02/22/2008  at  05:00 AM  



10. Appreciate the link to Vilmar, Bob.  Many thanks. 

    Posted by Tannenberg       02/22/2008  at  07:49 AM  



11. Not only was it a ‘one shot’ event, it was an announced one shot event.

    January 2007, the Red Chinese act of shooting down one of their satellites.  They launched from a ground-based facility (correct me if I’m wrong) and without saying anything about before the fact (again, correct me if I’m wrong).  I do not know if they took more than one shot to hit their satellite.  They didn’t give many details, as I recall.

    The underlying comment the Red Chinese made - at least in my mind - was “Spy satellites don’t impress us much.”

    Now, I do think the fuel on that satellite of ours was a bona fide health hazard.  And our people had announced prior the satellite was not functioning properly and would eventually burn in within the next couple years, if not sooner.  No guarantee it wouldn’t impact somewhere fairly harmless, but why take chances?  And perhaps there was just a bit of motive to respond to the Red Chinese in kind.

    So we announced prior to the event and declared exactly what we were going to do.

    We essentially said to the rest of the world - especially the Red Chinese and any other parties of a beligerent leaning - “Oh, yeah?  Hold my beer and watch this.”

    And did it.  

    Posted by Archie       02/23/2008  at  08:48 PM  

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