The first stab at the title was even more of a mouthful. This is, by the way, a real story and a real unmanned spaceplane. They just never, ever talk about the X-37B. Until now. I wonder why?
Via @kennethhite, who is already (hopefully) thinking about this, in that way that he has.
If I were less certain about how deeply China has penetrated our government’s R&D, I’d figure the uncertainty would keep Xi up nights.
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Sadly, I’m left hoping that whatever was going on is enough of an overt threat to keep the peace.
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Rods from God have been in the pipeline for quite a while.
An orbital version of HAARP would play merry hell with radar, radio, and most means of command & control. (Sadly, we’d be more vulnerable to such a disruption than anyone else.)
Smart Pebbles to degrade satellite webs of opposing forces are a possibility.
And I’m sure there are any number of other possibilities I’m not aware of.
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Of course, it’s more fun to go esoteric.
Who knows what mystic Chinese locuses Chiang Kaicheck brought with him when he escaped the looming communist threat?
With Taiwan under deadly threat from Red China, and no conceivable way to ever go home again, does it begin to become conceivable to sacrifice them to Amaterasu?
This got me to thinking: how would you test Kinetic energy weapons? Where is easy- just a big open bit of desert. Better hope your targeting is good, I guess or someone is going to have a really bad day.
Ocean gives you much more fudge factor.
And fewer potential witnesses.
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Visibility is only about 11 miles, and ships stick almost entirely to established trade routes. Being hundreds of miles from the nearest person is easy if you’re running on nuclear power.
It’s a trade-off. If you want to analyze the “meteorite” impact, and what sort of effects it has on the surrounding terrain, then the desert is your best option. If you just want to test the weapon and check how much the atmosphere throws off the aim of the “meteorite”, then open water is the way to go.
Israeli and South Africa tried testing a nuclear device in the middle of nowhere with Typhon in 1979. United States Vela satellite still managed to detected it.