| From: | Sommers <sommers@*****.UMICH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: A new gun for the New Millennium |
| Date: | Tue, 2 Feb 1999 08:43:18 -0500 |
>David B wrote:
>> The current theory is that it's an Aurora prototype.
>
>I don't buy the Aurora spy-plane idea. With satellites being what they are,
>the need for a spy-plane that much better than the SR-71 seems way to
>marginal to justify the cost.
1) Its easier to put a plane on target than it is a satellite. Unless your
bird happens to orbit that point, you burn a lot of fuel moving it around
all the time, and they're a lot harder to refuel than a plane.
2) You can spend more time covering a site with a plane that a satellite.
Depending on orbits and size of the target, you might only have a few
minutes to half an hour of coverage with a spy sat. Planes can turn around
and make several passes, giving you more time on target.
3) Details are still better if you get lower than up in orbit. No cloud cover.
4) There are ways to get the orbital plans of sats. They can be changed,
but not very well considering the cost in fuel. This makes them
predictable. Planes can be flown whenever needed.
>I will buy the hyper-sonic plane idea, though. Scientific American this
>month (Feb 1999) has an article on the next gen of... well... concepts meant
>to bring payload into low-earth orbit. Among the topics discussed are
>scramjets. The military, at least economically speaking, can make a much
>better case for investing in low-cost orbit-attaining tech than they can for
>spy planes.
A lot of the tech is there. I can believe that they have something similar
to the Aurora that is doing spy missions right now. Remember, there are
very few cases where the military has retired a weapon (SR-71) without
having another in place.
And while the military is supposed to be fiscally responsible and get the
most bang for the buck, they are also supposed to do their jobs. There are
certain things that spy sat does better than planes, and some things that
planes do better than spy sat. Of course, there has been a tendency to rely
too much on electronic intel, and not enough on personal intel....
Sommers
Homepage here now!
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~sommers/shadowrun.htm
