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I don't think so Tim. https://spacenews.com/pentagon-report-china-amassing-arsenal-of-anti-satellite-weapons/ https://spacenews.com/pentagon-report-china-amass

I don't think so Tim. https://spacenews.com/pentagon-report-china-amassing-arsenal-of-anti-satellite-weapons/ https://spacenews.com/pentagon-report-china-amassing-arsenal...

ls612 5y ago
The current ASAT weapons can only hit targets in low earth orbit, and the GPS sats are way above that. Anything that high up that is military run also likely has capability to maneuver to avoid something shot from the surface (which will take a lot of time to get up that high even if it has enough energy).
- virtue3 5y ago
  "China already has operational ground-based missiles that can hit satellites in low-Earth orbit and “probably intends to pursue additional ASAT weapons capable of destroying satellites up to geosynchronous Earth orbit,” says the Defense Department’s annual report to Congress on China’s military capabilities." The problem with defending a satellite is the missile really only needs to get kinda close. And yeah, relativistic speeds and distances in space are huge, but I would find it hard to believe we could defend our satellites in any meaningful way against a nation-state level threat.
URSpider94 5y ago
At this point, destroying the positioning network/s would be mutually assured destruction. Pretty much every country relies on those networks equally for controlling their own vehicles and weaponry.
- virtue3 5y ago
  Some of those systems do. Not all. " It is an Inertial Guidance System with an additional Star-Sighting system (this combination is known as astro-inertial guidance), which is used to correct small position and velocity errors that result from launch condition uncertainties due to errors in the submarine navigation system and errors that may have accumulated in the guidance system during the flight due to imperfect instrument calibration. GPS has been used on some test flights but is assumed not to be available for a real mission. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(missile) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(missile) Tomahawk missiles are also fed a navigation package before launch which allows them to navigate without additional signals (I'm sure accuracy goes up if they do have GPS available). I believe it's something akin to terrain maps that it can use to navigate to it's target. I would argue that any nation that is reliant on those public networks to be effective are going to lose within minutes of an actual conflict. I believe it's already established that the Russians are capable of completely blocking out GPS signals. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/vladimir-putin/russia-spoofing-gps-vast-scale-stop-drones-approaching-putin-report-n987376 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/vladimir-putin/russia-spoofing-... So no, I don't think we'd be facing mutually assured destruction. Now the impact on civilian life if some nation decided to start the space wars? Catastrophic. We'd basically block off space for the next 100 years because of deadly debris in orbit :/
- thebiss 5y ago
  And the debris created from a kinetic weapon would indiscriminately destroy other satellites at those altitudes. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

I don't think so Tim. https://spacenews.com/pentagon-report-china-amassing-arsenal-of-anti-satellite-weapons/ https://spacenews.com/pentagon-report-china-amassing-arsenal...

ls612 5y ago

The current ASAT weapons can only hit targets in low earth orbit, and the GPS sats are way above that. Anything that high up that is military run also likely has capability to maneuver to avoid something shot from the surface (which will take a lot of time to get up that high even if it has enough energy).

virtue3 5y ago
"China already has operational ground-based missiles that can hit satellites in low-Earth orbit and “probably intends to pursue additional ASAT weapons capable of destroying satellites up to geosynchronous Earth orbit,” says the Defense Department’s annual report to Congress on China’s military capabilities." The problem with defending a satellite is the missile really only needs to get kinda close. And yeah, relativistic speeds and distances in space are huge, but I would find it hard to believe we could defend our satellites in any meaningful way against a nation-state level threat.

URSpider94 5y ago

At this point, destroying the positioning network/s would be mutually assured destruction. Pretty much every country relies on those networks equally for controlling their own vehicles and weaponry.

virtue3 5y ago
Some of those systems do. Not all. " It is an Inertial Guidance System with an additional Star-Sighting system (this combination is known as astro-inertial guidance), which is used to correct small position and velocity errors that result from launch condition uncertainties due to errors in the submarine navigation system and errors that may have accumulated in the guidance system during the flight due to imperfect instrument calibration. GPS has been used on some test flights but is assumed not to be available for a real mission. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(missile) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(missile) Tomahawk missiles are also fed a navigation package before launch which allows them to navigate without additional signals (I'm sure accuracy goes up if they do have GPS available). I believe it's something akin to terrain maps that it can use to navigate to it's target. I would argue that any nation that is reliant on those public networks to be effective are going to lose within minutes of an actual conflict. I believe it's already established that the Russians are capable of completely blocking out GPS signals. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/vladimir-putin/russia-spoofing-gps-vast-scale-stop-drones-approaching-putin-report-n987376 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/vladimir-putin/russia-spoofing-... So no, I don't think we'd be facing mutually assured destruction. Now the impact on civilian life if some nation decided to start the space wars? Catastrophic. We'd basically block off space for the next 100 years because of deadly debris in orbit :/
thebiss 5y ago
And the debris created from a kinetic weapon would indiscriminately destroy other satellites at those altitudes. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome