I suspect that is partly their calculus in the medium to long term.
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
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I suspect that is partly their calculus in the medium to long term.
Launch hunks of tungsten into orbit and let the existing US satellites collide with them. Just an accident! There are always much cheaper ways to destroy assets than there are to protect assets. And in a world where China is the first among great powers and in control of most of the supply chains, the US will pretend nothing is happening to avoid getting into a war with China if they leave China with no other option than to clear some of the existing satellites from orbit 15 years from now.
Er, no? Thousands of satellites are being added to leo by multiple countries. There is plenty of space still. And the idea for US (and i imagine China as well) is precisely to send thousands more for various military needs.
And i think triangulation isn't even needed much. Those gmti and amti satellites should have fairly narrow beams. Idea being to steer the beem width wise and use stellites longitudinal motion for resolution in other direction. though i imagine dwell modes could be added for contacts of interest.
Doppler radar of high enough resolution, and military sar radars already operate in sub x bands, when orbiting at a few hundred km high altitudes, should provide a pretty precise location in lomgitude and latitude. Doppler effect will provide speed and direction info and time of bounce back to radar will provide distance, as usual. As satellites arent gonna be perfectly overhead, there should be enough room for doppler to provide direction and speed info.
Info will be relayed by lasers to other comms satellites, as with current starlink/starshield satellites.
And ground stations will process data and uplink input to comms satellites which will then share it amongst themselves and send it downwards to aircraft and various other units that need it.
I cant say when the descirbed system will be perfected but there is nothing that inherently prevents it from being better than current awacs. It's only a matter of time and investment. And i bet China will be going the same route quite soon.
And i think triangulation isn't even needed much. Those gmti and amti satellites should have fairly narrow beams. Idea being to steer the beem width wise and use stellites longitudinal motion for resolution in other direction. though i imagine dwell modes could be added for contacts of interest.
Doppler radar of high enough resolution, and military sar radars already operate in sub x bands, when orbiting at a few hundred km high altitudes, should provide a pretty precise location in lomgitude and latitude. Doppler effect will provide speed and direction info and time of bounce back to radar will provide distance, as usual. As satellites arent gonna be perfectly overhead, there should be enough room for doppler to provide direction and speed info.
Info will be relayed by lasers to other comms satellites, as with current starlink/starshield satellites.
And ground stations will process data and uplink input to comms satellites which will then share it amongst themselves and send it downwards to aircraft and various other units that need it.
I cant say when the descirbed system will be perfected but there is nothing that inherently prevents it from being better than current awacs. It's only a matter of time and investment. And i bet China will be going the same route quite soon.
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imo this won't happen (and why I think Golden Dome is a dud) because of future non-kinetic ways to disable large chunks of constellations eg. see NINT's TPG1000Cs device/Space Force general positing China may attack US assets from beyond the Earth. There are other even more subtle attack vectors as we advance space exploration technologies which are inherently dual-use. Eventually nations will have to come to some sort of detente, a space-based MAD of sorts.
If there is only so much strategically useful orbital real estate and the US monopolizes a majority of it, they will leave China with no choice but to do something about it. A China that is the leading power on Earth will not accept being permanently made into a 2nd tier owner of the best orbital real estate.
The FY27 President budget request has the Navy ordering 405 PAC3-MSE (out of 3,203 total) which we can assume would be to fit the PAC3 on Navy ships.
My question is that if the Navy does adopt the PAC3 does that mean they now only have active radar homing missiles? Can they move away from using the AN/SPG-62 fire control radar?
My question is that if the Navy does adopt the PAC3 does that mean they now only have active radar homing missiles? Can they move away from using the AN/SPG-62 fire control radar?
They're also buying 540 SM-6, but there will still be some SM-2 stock (ARH and SARH variants).
There are no ARH SM-2 in use, to my knowledge. I'd say USN is increasingly going towards ARH missiles only (save for shortest range ones like RAM) Could be just 5-10 years before all SM-2 are retired, who knows?
As for satellite real estate, people can't really agree on how many could fit in LEO. There's horizontal separation, vertical separation, types of satellites and interference, no one can really give a precise estimate yet. Hence a huge range of figures. From Elon Musk's "billions of satellites" (that could've also been in other orbits as well, not just LEO) to upward of ten million for LEO to more conservative guesstimates from people that try to take into account accidents and kessler syndrome. But even if the latter is accounted for, no one can really simulate how many would be enough for kessler syndrome to keep happening. Some off the hand estimates from various astronomers suggested 100 000 satellites in LEO as a practical limit. There is also this one study, a bit more detailed:
It explored and simulated 1 million satellites in LEO. 54% of satellites remained operational after at least 1 year. After six years, 10 percent remained operational. I assume that was without actual destruction of satellites, more like natural errors and congestion. While the 100 000 estimate might be more practical, taking into account collisions, mishaps etc starting a chain event. But that's just a guess. Bottom line is - no one is really sure and real figure could be higher or lower. But even if there is a cascading effect due to "too many satellites", it wouldn't be quick. It'd be multi-year rolling event, gradually taking out satellite networks.
As for satellite real estate, people can't really agree on how many could fit in LEO. There's horizontal separation, vertical separation, types of satellites and interference, no one can really give a precise estimate yet. Hence a huge range of figures. From Elon Musk's "billions of satellites" (that could've also been in other orbits as well, not just LEO) to upward of ten million for LEO to more conservative guesstimates from people that try to take into account accidents and kessler syndrome. But even if the latter is accounted for, no one can really simulate how many would be enough for kessler syndrome to keep happening. Some off the hand estimates from various astronomers suggested 100 000 satellites in LEO as a practical limit. There is also this one study, a bit more detailed:
It explored and simulated 1 million satellites in LEO. 54% of satellites remained operational after at least 1 year. After six years, 10 percent remained operational. I assume that was without actual destruction of satellites, more like natural errors and congestion. While the 100 000 estimate might be more practical, taking into account collisions, mishaps etc starting a chain event. But that's just a guess. Bottom line is - no one is really sure and real figure could be higher or lower. But even if there is a cascading effect due to "too many satellites", it wouldn't be quick. It'd be multi-year rolling event, gradually taking out satellite networks.
kwaigonegin
Colonel
Very happy to hear that the 2nd driver of the F15 has been located and rescued.
