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Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow-Raising Claims About Advanced Space Technology

posted by Fnord666 on Monday December 16 2019, @12:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the space-ace dept.

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for Runaway1956.

Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow-Raising Claims About Advanced Space Technology

Recently retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Steven L. Kwast gave a lecture last month that seems to further signal that the next major battlefield will be outer space. While military leadership rattling the space sabers is nothing new, Kwast's lecture included comments that heavily hint at the possibility that the United States military and its industry partners may have already developed next-generation technologies that have the potential to drastically change the aerospace field, and human civilization, forever. Is this mere posturing or could we actually be on the verge of making science fiction a reality?

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Monday December 16 2019, @02:14PM (4 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 16 2019, @02:14PM (#932838) Journal

    - Pournelle's "Rods from God" are pretty trivial, for example: Dumb projectiles that can be de-orbited and told to impact a particular point. As long as they are solid enough not to break up on re-entry, they can pile a lot of energy into a small area.

    Bunker-buster, yes. Otherwise 7.2t of dynamite is more practical to deliver by conventional means [wikipedia.org].

    But add in the average General Officer who is financialy motivated to appear as totally believesing the fancy marketing pitch from his favorite contractor, and it probably does sound like science fiction.

    FTFY. And a bad science-fiction when it comes to that.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday December 16 2019, @08:55PM (3 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday December 16 2019, @08:55PM (#933008)

    That guy has lived his whole life in the US military, so he's a hammer. It is no surprise he sees everything as a nail.

    The US military industrial complex is running out of enemies again, and they really need enemies to keep that sweet cash rolling in. As General Hammer is retiring from the Air Force he is busy looking around for a nice consulting job in the private sector, because that is what retired generals do in the US.

    Creating some nonsense threat out of whole cloth and a whole new battlefield is a wet dream to these people.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @09:18PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @09:18PM (#933013)

      As General Hammer is retiring from the Air Force he is busy looking around for a nice consulting job in the private sector, because that is what retired generals do in the US.

      Thanks for elaborating on the meaning of financially motivated, historians will find it informative.

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday December 17 2019, @02:11AM (1 child)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday December 17 2019, @02:11AM (#933116)

        It seems like the A/C's on this site are getting angrier.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17 2019, @06:42AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17 2019, @06:42AM (#933196)

          Judging by the writing style, I'd say there are a couple of new bad apples. Enough time and they'll either end up banned or bored, and, either way, move on. Part of the problem, IMHO, is that everyone, not just ACs are getting shorter tempers and frayed nerves. Also, many colleges and schools are on break or near finals, so more time and stress for students as well.