Footfall: USAF Posts Space Warfare Plans
Readers of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle may recall their book Footfall,
whose name referred to the orbital bombardment of Earth by Aliens.
Expensive high-technology weapons wouldn't be required... all you need are rocks or hammers.
Accelerated from LEO, an all metal hammer (wood handle not surviving reentry heat) craters houses, a sledgehammer craters blocks, a vespa sized asteroid takes out whole neighbourhoods, and anything bigger than a volkswagen will seriously mess up your suburbs.
Fiery smackdown from space with something as primal as a hammer.
(No word on if this'll finally justify the $600/hammer price they used to overpay,
though adding a 'smart bomb' JDAMS guidance system and fins might bump the price)
Most of the ISS/Shuttle tools are Beryllium Copper, which withstands vacuum, cold/hot swings,
but anything dense that survives both long duration parking and reentry is a candidate material
US Space Policy has for some time been evolving and exploring space warfare options.
Reagan's Star Wars, Bush I, Clinton, and now Bush II... all have seen or sought policy reviews.
There are some great PDFs in the links above, from graduate research papers to SecDef briefings.
This weekend, the USAF published it's most recent (Nov 2003) plan for Space War.
The CDI report of the announcement is a nice one page summary,
and the Space.com story includes a few artists renditions and simple graphics,
but visit www.af.mil and click Transformation Flight Plan graphic on the right for the full 176 page PDF
Among the publicly announced capabilities being sought besides lasers?
Hypervelocity rod bundles for orbital bombardment... Footfall's Orbital Hammers
Still reading the document, but thought others might find it discussion worthy.
Dig in, and look up.
[edit: drewprops has corrected my original error. the book title is Footfall. orbital bombardment is described as rocks or iron bars or .... Lucifer's Hammer is also a gripping scifi read, but I mistakenly conflated titles and concepts]
whose name referred to the orbital bombardment of Earth by Aliens.
Expensive high-technology weapons wouldn't be required... all you need are rocks or hammers.
Accelerated from LEO, an all metal hammer (wood handle not surviving reentry heat) craters houses, a sledgehammer craters blocks, a vespa sized asteroid takes out whole neighbourhoods, and anything bigger than a volkswagen will seriously mess up your suburbs.
Fiery smackdown from space with something as primal as a hammer.
(No word on if this'll finally justify the $600/hammer price they used to overpay,
though adding a 'smart bomb' JDAMS guidance system and fins might bump the price)
Most of the ISS/Shuttle tools are Beryllium Copper, which withstands vacuum, cold/hot swings,
but anything dense that survives both long duration parking and reentry is a candidate material
US Space Policy has for some time been evolving and exploring space warfare options.
Reagan's Star Wars, Bush I, Clinton, and now Bush II... all have seen or sought policy reviews.
There are some great PDFs in the links above, from graduate research papers to SecDef briefings.
This weekend, the USAF published it's most recent (Nov 2003) plan for Space War.
The CDI report of the announcement is a nice one page summary,
and the Space.com story includes a few artists renditions and simple graphics,
but visit www.af.mil and click Transformation Flight Plan graphic on the right for the full 176 page PDF
Among the publicly announced capabilities being sought besides lasers?
Hypervelocity rod bundles for orbital bombardment... Footfall's Orbital Hammers
Still reading the document, but thought others might find it discussion worthy.
Dig in, and look up.
[edit: drewprops has corrected my original error. the book title is Footfall. orbital bombardment is described as rocks or iron bars or .... Lucifer's Hammer is also a gripping scifi read, but I mistakenly conflated titles and concepts]
Comments
... weaponizing space. What a great idea.
Originally posted by Moogs
Anti-satellite weapon prototypes have been in development and testing since the late 80's if I remember correctly. Basically launched from another aircraft at 50,000 or so, they're dropped from under wing and then rocket towards their targets...
... weaponizing space. What a great idea.
you are correct that ASATs have long been planned and tested.
some of the current X-43 scramjet tests are built on the Pegasus air launched booster rocket,
originally proposed as an part of an ASAT/Satellite launch platform
plenty of research and at least one film have dwelt on EMP weapons
and the particle accelerator or railgun long ago moved from scifi to non-fiction
even scarier are the number of amateur Railgun blogs
"Hey! You two Steves! What are you building in the garage? A computer?
Nah. Electromagnetic railguns! Particle Accelerators are cool.
Those 'robot wars' wussies better watch out or get perforated"
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaties from the Nixon era were... uh... overlooked by GWB,
hence the latest surge in hawkish suggestions (Bush didn't ask for this report, US Space policy is scheduled for 10yr review from Clinton's last pass at it in 1996)
it is the first time the US has published detailed intentions to weaponize space
Lent out my copies of both and confused the titles. Thanks for the correction.
Mods, please swap book names in the thread title.
thanks for the speedy edit.
OT: almost anything Niven has written is recommended reading. Ringworld was fabulous
Originally posted by drewprops
Being a huge fan of Larry's work (was on the Listserv for years) I have to point out that Lucifer's Hammer is the story of an errant comet that collides with the Earth, not by alien intention. The story to which you refer is called Footfall. Otherwise, good thread!
Wasn't that Niven and Pournelle?
Aries 1B