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In a large, tin-roofed warehouse near Colorado's Rocky Mountains, members of a team of modern space warriors spend their days hatching plots to defeat the US military in extraterrestrial combat.
They're called Space Aggressors.
Their job is to act like the enemy during mock space battles to help US units prepare for a conflict that may one day extend into the cosmos.
[...] While attacks by the Space Aggressors are simulated, senior US military and intelligence officials warn the threat in space is very real.
[...] Some worry that disrupting America's vast network of satellites and ground-based systems could send US forces back to an antiquated era of targeting, communications, and navigation systems — deeply undercutting battlefield superiority.
This spring, rhetoric from US military officials about the need to bolster American defensive position, and even offensive capabilities, in space has ratcheted up amid concern that Russia and China are rapidly developing anti-satellite weapons.
"While we're not at war in space, I don't think we could say we're exactly at peace, either," Vice Admiral Charles Richard, Deputy Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, known as Stratcom, told a conference in Washington DC in March. "We must prepare for a conflict that extends into space."
In his remarks, Vice Admiral Richard pointed to press reports that "China is developing an arsenal of lasers, electro-magnetic rail guns, and high-powered microwave weapons to neutralize America's intelligence, communications, and navigations satellites."
Source: 'Space Aggressors' Train US Forces for Extraterrestrial Conflict
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday May 25 2017, @06:50AM (7 children)
So is this the same place where the US trained Tibetans to infiltrate and overthrow the ChiCom menace back in the fifties? With the same chances of success? How interesting! Marx said that Hegel said, that everything in history happens twice: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. So where are we on this one?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 25 2017, @06:54AM (6 children)
So that means there won't be a World War 3, 2nd time was the last, peace on Earth.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday May 25 2017, @07:20AM (5 children)
The third one will knock us back to the stone age.
And we will stay there for quite some time, as all the "easy" natural energy resources of this planet ( which fueled our industrial revolution ) have already been consumed.
This is one of my greatest fears for humanity as we seem so hell-bent on restricting widespread knowledge of technology in the name of "Copyright" and "Intellectual Property" protection.
In my day, it was common knowledge among many of us how to build radio amateur transmitters. We could have even built the vacuum tubes if we had to. How many of us can build an IC? Solar Panel? LCD Display?
If we ever lose our technology, its gonna be a really long row to hoe to get back to where we are now.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday May 25 2017, @09:12AM (1 child)
Building vacuum tubes requires a fair amount of infrastructure to refine the raw materials - even getting the glass and the seals to the right tolerances is not easy. If you needed to bootstrap civilisation again, you wouldn't start with LCD panels or even with vacuum tubes. You'd first need to get steel production and copper refining working. You'd have a head start over the first time, because there's a load of refined metal lying around on the surface. You need a lot of wire for the coils in a radio and for the inverter to attach to your wind turbine for power. Relays are a lot easier to build than thermionic valves, so that's where you'd start for switching, but this kind of automation would be a lot less important than things like getting water purification on a large scale working, getting enough irrigation flowing that you could farm, and so on.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Thursday May 25 2017, @10:34AM
I was thinking more like the edison valve as far as actually making one. Filament, grid, and plate. Assuming I could get old-school flashlight bulbs.
I could not come even close to making an operable 6L6.
You are so right, there are many things, like just pumping water, that will take a big hit.
Look at the story that just hit the top of SN just now... all these big corporations lobbying to overturn the "right to repair" law.
Once our populace no longer can repair their stuff, a lot of kids won't have even the foggiest idea of how stuff works. If one thought business was having trouble getting young blood into the organization who knows how the stuff works... they sure won't be easy to find!
I would say a good 95% of what I know about how stuff works, it was directly from taking stuff apart. I was raised in a time where every town had radio/TV repair shops. I worked at one during High School. As one of the technicians. Fixing old vacuum tube radios and TV's. All black-and-white TV at the time. Color was just coming out as I left the shop for College. Never had the joy of fixing a Color TV, ( nor would I look forward to fixing the vacuum tube version of one either. Too many analog things to drift. ).
If Congress falls for this one, its almost sure the USA is all about raising a bunch of obedient ignorant sheep for the shepherd to feed, as they won't have the sense to feed themselves. I don't like where this is going. A nation full of ignoramuses as to what makes their stuff work.
I learned long time ago how risky it is to build anything with single-sourced components. It is a sure recipe for disaster.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 25 2017, @10:26AM (2 children)
You are not following the news? We are living a WW now, only it is not what we thought it would be: It is an asymmetric war against global enemy who is not a technological industrial superpower.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday May 25 2017, @10:37AM (1 child)
Looks to me we are being bled to death by swarms of mosquitoes when we came prepared for a bear.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 25 2017, @03:43PM
That seems pretty apt. And, of course, we're all playing Macho Man so hard, that we refuse to put up any sissy mosquito nettings, thus providing the mosquitos with a never ending banquet. But, TSA will save us, right? Right? Amirite? Please, tell me I'm right!!