Obama sat on his hands while Russia and China developed the means to annihilate US, and our time to regain the means to defend ourselves is short. Or we could use our only current option and fire off all our nukes now if you think that's the way to go. The Pentagon's top engineer is blaming Russia and China for militarizing space as Trump's Space Force takes shape The Pentagon's top engineer criticized Russia and China Wednesday for militarizing space but reaffirmed that the U.S. would not be eclipsed by developments from Moscow or Beijing. "We are not the people who choose to weaponize space but if we are challenged we will respond," Michael Griffin told reporters Wednesday. The Trump administration wants to address emerging threats in space with the formation of a sixth service branch dubbed "Space Force." Amanda Macias | @amanda_m_macias Published 10:17 AM ET Fri, 10 Aug 2018 Updated 2:44 PM ET Fri, 10 Aug 2018 CNBC.com Vice President Mike Pence unveils plan to create Space Force 4:12 PM ET Fri, 10 Aug 2018 | 01:26 HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Pentagon's top engineer criticized Russia and China this week for militarizing space, a move the Trump administration wants to address with the formation of a sixth service branch dubbed Space Force. His remarks came a day before Vice President Mike Pence laid out President Donald Trump's vision for creating the Space Force by 2020. "We are not the people who choose to weaponize space, but if we are challenged we will respond," Michael Griffin said Wednesday at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. "The Defense Department is today working on a means to defend our existing capabilities and we will be working on methods to project our national power onto our adversaries." Griffin, a former NASA administrator, explained that Russia and China's pursuit of hypersonics, a kind of weapon the U.S. currently cannot defend against, has prompted the Pentagon to accelerate its development of space-based systems. "It is our adversaries, not us, who have chosen to weaponize this type of capability," Griffin said, adding that the U.S. would not be eclipsed by Russia and China. Griffin's comments came on the heels of Chinese reports announcing the first successful testing of a hypersonic aircraft, a feat the U.S. has yet to accomplish. When asked about China's sprint to deploy this new breed of weapon, Griffin described Beijing's efforts as "much more thoughtful" compared with Moscow's developments. "The Chinese have been much more thoughtful in their systems development because they are developing long-range tactical precision-guided systems that will be really influential in a conventional fight," Griffin said. "The Chinese ability to hold our forward deployed assets at risk with very high speed and very hard to intercept precision-guided systems is something to which we have to respond," he added. Turning to Russia, Griffin noted that Moscow's intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, pose a greater threat to the U.S. than the hypersonic weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin purports to have. In March, Putin debuted new nuclear and hypersonic weapons, which he described as "invincible" during a state of the nation address. The weapons included a nuclear-powered cruise missile, a nuclear-powered underwater drone and a new hypersonic missile. "We are hostage to Russian ICBMs and they are hostage to ours and maybe I'm missing something, but I do not see what a hypersonic nuclear missile brings to the strategic missile posture that earlier systems don't," he added, referring to Russia's nuclear deterrence. Griffin's comments followed the top U.S. nuclear commander's warning Tuesday that Russia and China are not "friends" of the United States amid the budding arms race. "You can't call them [Russia and China] our friends if they're building weapons that can destroy the United States of America and, therefore, we have to develop the capability to respond," Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said Tuesday at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. Hyten added that the Pentagon has nearly a dozen programs tasked with developing and defending against the new breed of weapons. "I always wish we started [working on hypersonics] five years ago or 10 years ago because then we wouldn't be worried ... but we didn't so we have to step up now, and we are," he added.
While the name "space force" is ridiculous, and many of these memes are gold, I really don't think getting people interested in space exploration once again is a bad idea. Especially if other countries start trying to compete. The space race of the 60's resulted in a man walking on the moon and a ton of other advancements.
I would agree with this sentiment but we are talking about militarizating space, not exploring it. The "space force" is just another way for us to increase our already bloated military budget. It also should be unnecessary since we already have NASA.
We're using space technology right now to wage war and espionage....we can pinpoint a goat in Afghanistan from space and shoot it from a drone controlled module in the Nevada desert
WTF would we want to shoot a goat in Afghanistan, or anywhere else for that matter? This is the nonsensical hypothesizing we get from lefty think tanks who let us fall behind in military superiority. We're shooting goats in the desert while China and Russia are building space weapons.
I've got a lot of family in the Huntsville area, mostly in Decatur. I can tell you that those poor ignorant people are extremely proud of their space program in Huntsville. When I was last there they even had the outer shell of a rocket posted on the road side as a highway entered Huntsville. When I was 18, I had the opportunity of meeting Wehrner von Braun. My father, who was divorced from my mother at the time, had a girlfriend who was von Braun's secretary. I declined and have regretted that decision pretty much all the rest of my life. Geez, the dumb things we do when we are young. When I was working for Boeing in Seattle I tried to get a job with Boeing working on the Space Station in Huntsville but couldn't get on. That also would have been a dream come true. When I was in Decatur, it was a dry county (no alcohol). My father built homes. We were working on one nice home, eventually bought by an employee who worked in Huntsville on the space program, and the owner wanted a wet bar. I was a little surprised but then I remembered dropping my grandfather off at a speak easy right across the street from the City Hall. While my dad and I waited in the pickup, granddad went to the door, knocked, a sliding window opened and then the door opened and let him in. A few minutes later granddad came out and told us how he had a drink with the mayor and the chief of police. That's Alabama.
Most places aren't dry. I worked in Atlanta a couple summers and we had to drive from a wet county to a dry county to the wet county we lived in. I know of no other place but the South where you'll find that. Now, throw in the mayor and chief of police drinking with pretty near anyone who'll join them in a dry county in a speakeasy selling moonshine. No, you don't find this most places.
I was speaking generally. I meant corruption and/or dishonesty in small local governments. Not exactly a rarity. I wasn't suggesting dry counties and bootlegging moonshiners are commonplace in 2018. Also, I doubt the Alabama of your youth is the Alabama of today.
I have about 2 dozen cousins who live there and a few Aunts left alive. I know a thing or two about the South. Did I mention that I was born in Atlanta? Army brat. Born in Ft. McPherson, Georgia. My dad was from Alabama. Also, I lived and worked in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. Maybe you've heard of it and Michael Brown. I worked on the same street where Michael Brown was killed. They accepted me as white even though I'm 1/16 American Indian and would not have beeen permitted to attend a public school in the mid 60s, if they knew about my heritage, in South Carolina. Even my middle name is from a Southern poet. My nickname, Lanny, comes from the South. I talk regularly to my aunt in a suburb of Birmingham. Trust me, I'm up on the South.
nonsensicle hypothesizing post? Read the one you just typed..You're the one addicted to paranoid deep state fear mongering and arms races...it's your go to move..stick to cutting and pasting Fox crap...it's just your alt egos right wing bible......China has one of the most inept space programs on the planet...they fail all the time...Russia has a decent space program.....all of them use satelites for guidance but you wouldn't know this I'm sure.....as to the goat...just about every middle eastern and Mediterranean country in the world shoot goats daily.....see, they eat them We have the most advanced military and space program on the earth....but I'm sure you need to justify your bomb shelter somehow...good luck with that..your fake character you claim no responsibility for is flailing around the board like an infomercial selling crap nobody buys...
