Cold-War Missile Launches Military Satellite 91
Velcroman1 writes "At 11:49 a.m. EDT, a Minotaur IV+ rocket — essentially a decommissioned Peacekeeper missile built decades ago during the Cold War — launched the TacSat-4 satellite into orbit. Most troops today carry PRC-117 radios for communication, devices that rely on UHF transmissions. They relay calls and data back to a base station that's brought in and fixed in place, either set up on a hillside locally or carried overhead in a nearby plane. The TacSat-4 (or tactical microsatellite) lets the hundreds of thousands of military handheld radios currently in use communicate directly with an antenna orbiting in the most convenient spot imaginable: all that space overhead. 'If you're a mobile force, that requires a mobile infrastructure, the best place to put that infrastructure is in space,' said Dr. Larry Schuette, director of innovation for the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR)."
Re:Well that's fantastic (Score:2, Insightful)
A more efficient way of communicating so you can kill people.
Like New Orleans after Katrina (after civilian orgs failed), Indian Ocean region after their tsunami, Haiti after the earthquake, Japan after their tsunami, etc?
Re:Besides... (Score:2, Insightful)
I remember Barbara Streisand giving a speech back in the 80's, about how buying ICBMs was wasteful because "they'd never be used". Shows what she knew.
Well, paying military prices (for military features, like quick fueling, etc.), and constant upkeep for decades, all for eventual use as little more than commercial-class launch service (which will be cheaper by then) is a really, really poor justification. Sure, once you have them, by all means use them, but don't pretend that's a justification.
The reason we pay for ICBMs is precisely so we can use them, and the way to use an ICBM is to threaten potential enemies; actually nuking people is a last resort.
Re:Besides... (Score:4, Insightful)
Still think this was a wise financial decision to make?
If you need a nuclear deterrent, (and back then most people thought we did) then yes, especially compared to manned bombers. You're going to pay upfront costs for that deterrent. At least this way, you get double duty out of it.