Space force

[Pyropyro]

Relevant wiki articles:

Space Warfare
United States Space Force

This topic piqued my interest since Trump announced the proposal for the United States Space Force a month ago. On one hand, arms race tend to produce civilian tech faster which means we might become a spacefaring species sooner. We might even get to make space outposts or asteroid mining tech up because of this race. On the other hand, I think space warfare would be much more devastating than traditional warfare especially since ammo for lower tech like kinetic bombardment are quite more abundant than say, nuclear bombs. Developing countries would again be at the mercy of the superpowers given that at best these countries only have microsatellites to show for their space programs.

What do you think?

Spoiler: also relevant meme

 

[Hadoblado]

Interesting stuff.

I'm wondering at what point space-to-space combat becomes relevant. How difficult is it to shoot down a satellite from earth? How much effective range would such weaponry have? How much range does it need to have to prevent local bombardment?

If ground-to-space combat can be effective enough defensively to prevent orbital shenanigans, then space-to-space combat will be unecessary save for offensive operations, which would equalise the arms race somewhat.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Not sure what war is but to reduce the population by killing thousands, even millions of people. That plus land and territorial disputes. The main goal of this might be to develop asteroid deterring technology or other ways to avoid collisions. And only then can we do colonizing other worlds and terraformation, and then travelling to other star systems and galaxies.

 

[Pyropyro]

How difficult is it to shoot down a satellite from earth? How much effective range would such weaponry have? How much range does it need to have to prevent local bombardment?

According to the wiki the US can hit a 907 kg satellite that has a velocity of 24,140 km/h with a jet launched missile at 38,100 ft.

 

[Cognisant]

No matter who starts shooting down satellites everybody loses, Kessler Syndrome aside it's a lot easier to send up a missile that can destroy a satellite than another satellite that could weigh up to several tons.

Current world leaders dick each other over in proxy wars where there's a degree of plausible deniability, or rather nobody really wants to be too honest about their vested interests in these smaller nations because they'd be admitting to their exploitation of them.

I think this is all silly and irrelevant, unless Trump commissions a mass driver or some other kind of assisted launch structure.

 

[Pyropyro]

I think this is all silly and irrelevant, unless Trump commissions a mass driver or some other kind of assisted launch structure.

Or just make supersoldiers in his own image and genetic makeup.

Yeah, mass drivers would be cool in the future. But I think countries should focus on making those and space elevators instead rather than warring.

 

[Cognisant]

Good luck having "super" soldiers without power armor, augmentations or bolters.

 

[Grayman]

Initially this is to protect satellites but eventually I wonder if we will use satellites. For communication we can replace long-range communication with quantum entangled servers Quantum Computers which would provide instant communication at any distance and be completely unaffected by any obstructions. Replacing GPS would be the more difficult task. Most simple GPS can be done via cellular towers but military will have need for satellites for some time.

I also wonder if you could use a sort of blockchain gps signal where each computer can both send and receive signals and relay their positions to other devices which can then determine their positions based on other devices in their area and relay that information to other devices and so on.

 

[Haim]

Quantum Computers which would provide instant communication

No such things as instant communication, even quantum communication is at best light speed.

Being fucking bombed from space is worrying me, today regular army will have hard time defending against it, i am not sure even USA could do anything aside from striking the space launcher before it fires.

 

[Grayman]

Quantum Computers which would provide instant communication

No such things as instant communication, even quantum communication is at best light speed.

Being fucking bombed from space is worrying me, today regular army will have hard time defending against it, i am not sure even USA could do anything aside from striking the space launcher before it fires.

Laser cannons. https://www.wired.com/2013/04/laser-warfare-system/

I also wonder if they could shoot other frequencies at it to disrupt communications or throw off its ability to aim or fire.

 

[QuickTwist]

I think this is all silly and irrelevant, unless Trump commissions a mass driver or some other kind of assisted launch structure.

Or just make supersoldiers in his own image and genetic makeup.

Yeah, mass drivers would be cool in the future. But I think countries should focus on making those and space elevators instead rather than warring.

Good post, good thread, thanks.

 

[Haim]

Quantum Computers which would provide instant communication

No such things as instant communication, even quantum communication is at best light speed.

Being fucking bombed from space is worrying me, today regular army will have hard time defending against it, i am not sure even USA could do anything aside from striking the space launcher before it fires.

Laser cannons. https://www.wired.com/2013/04/laser-warfare-system/

I also wonder if they could shoot other frequencies at it to disrupt communications or throw off its ability to aim or fire.

I doubt a laser could handle large projectiles moving down toward you in a straight line and in high velocity.

 

[Pyropyro]

Good post, good thread, thanks.

Welcome

 

[kanteravir]

Space warfare is going to become important when the space-capable industrial entities begin the expansion. I'm calling those entities rather than countries because of the not too remote possibility of multinationals surpassing everything else in this race.

Before anything significant can be mined and constructed in space (at least the heaviest structural components) it is much less energy consuming to target the orbit and the rest of the planet with ballistic missiles and navy task forces (aircraft carriers, missile cruisers, nuclear submarines).

It is likely that multinational interest groups will have to rely on the national monopoly on having access to the military. So we might end up seeing the US Space Force protecting the interests of all the groups controlling the government, under the familiar banner.

 

[ZenRaiden]

I think the next best thing are hypersonic missiles. They have been talked about to death for about 60 years, but the tech is realistic only nowdays.

 

[machine1000]

i just dont want a live google earth catching me twerking in my backyard. just sayin

 

[mr_darker]

The thing about space, is places like north korea i dont really imgsine other countries being like sure launch satellites, nevermind weaponized ones. Isis/taliban could affor/manage nukes, kinda harder to launch weaponized non government satellites. Id worry about someone hacking them tho. But still, north korea can be like we will burn your country, and we can just shine a laser pointer down from the rod from god machine, and they fix their behavior real quick lol.

Providing power from the sky over the ground is the only real relevant value for the forseeable future. No need for navy ships to be located close enough for heavy artillery to be called in. No need for planes to be deployed and flown over, just a floating war machine in the sky, only question is if it, or another one is orbiting within range at the time of need, which i imagine theyd deploy enough of to make it reliably available in a reasonable amount of time.

One danger though, the kinetic rods, being comparable to nuclear bombs, have no fallout and extreme long lasting global enviornmental impact. Reducing the scare around inflicting such massive damage on another country, therefore, more likely to be used than nukes, increased use of weapons of mass destruction. Which, no offense californians, but id not be crying if one slippedand fell on cali. Its the un-america.

 

[mr_darker]

Funny story, talking in the platoon room (national guard) about space force and kinetic bombardment, the oldest guy there is sitting at the table just silent, then finally speaks up shaking his head "I feel so old.." lol.