Tag: Star Wars

Voltaire

Are you smoking something?

On By gyonas7 Comments

One of the readers of my latest couple of blog posts asked me if I was smoking funny cigarettes. I don’t think he appreciated my satire. I really did not know I was in the satire business, until one of the readers of my book, “Death Rays and Delusions,” commented that I was trying to be another Voltaire. Being an engineer, I thought that was an automobile model, (perhaps a Chevy), so I looked it up and found Voltaire was a 16th century philosopher who poked fun at political leaders using a style characterized by wild exaggeration, irony and subtle humor. In my recent blog posts, I poked fun at the obviously silly idea of a new branch of the military, the space force. I knew enough about the subject that I figured the Air Force already had the job well in hand so I opined that one financial benefit would be the use of the surplus uniforms left over from the Star Trek TV series. My other post dealt with the concept that we could dominate space control through investing in new and revolutionary technologies.

In my book, I described the outrageous notions that we could defend ourselves against the threat of nuclear tipped ballistic missiles if we only had to deploy hundreds of giant space-based lasers, or thousands of tiny missiles, or maybe just a few orbiting nuclear weapons to create beams of x rays. When I was the chief scientist of the SDI program, I enjoyed the satirical humor in the “Bloom County “cartoons where I was described as a plump penguin who argued, “Why fer crying out loud…. research physicists need Porches too.”

Maybe the message of my book was lost in the satire, but my point was that decisions were being driven by the tech sales forces of the military industrial complex. They were extremely successful in extracting large sums for unlikely programs, that turned out to be the heart of an elaborate mind game with the Soviets.

The policy decision makers on both sides had no clue about the reality of the technology, but they were mostly motivated by their own philosophical, strategic and economic concepts. Gorbachev hated nukes, the arms race and the impending financial collapse of the Soviet empire. Reagan hated nukes, believed the Soviet Union was on the edge of financial extinction and was willing to make a deal that even shared our technology with the Soviets.

As it turns out, scientists and engineers were involved, but were only along for the ride. Many of them believed that their next miracle would give us the winning move.

signs

From no collusion to no collision: a new motto for Space Force

On By gyonas9 Comments

No collision, no collision, no collision.”

 
One of the most certain ways to destroy one of our satellites is for the bad guys to track any of our satellites from the ground and then launch a guided missile into its path. The resulting collision will destroy both objects and spread a tremendous amount of debris into already crowded orbits, so a good motto for the new Space Force is “No Collision.”

 
We might even use the motto on our Space Force uniforms modified from the left over Star Trek uniforms as I suggested in my last post. When the president’s goal of space dominance is achieved, we will of course have to be ready to overpower all of those other nations who have ambitions of using space for their own commercial and military applications and they might not be ready and willing to go along with us. So we will have to establish and enforce our own “Space Rules of the Road.”

 
Liberals have suggested that there should be global rules of the road in economics and I can imagine the Anti-Space Dominance (ASD) advocates suggesting something similar for space. Their ideas would include shared beliefs and accepted rules of behavior such as free trade of products involving space hardware and satellites, minimal application of military power (except to police the bad guys) and trusted investments and business agreements. If we are not willing to go along with this sort of mutually assured survival (MAS) with a live and let live approach, we will need to enforce our dominance of space. Our control of space would then be great again–like it used to be before others decided to compete.

 
Claiming that the Russian and Chinese are already moving ahead with space weapons, the president and vice president have called for “American dominance of space” so there will absolutely be no collision. I can imagine what comes next. We will create a space club and we will collect dues and make sure everybody knows our rules so that they all will all be protected from direct attacks and any space debris or even jamming, blinding or destruction from directed energy weapons. We will own all of the orbits and charge rent for their use. The law of space will be our law, our space, our territory over the entire world and nobody will be allowed  to launch rockets without our permission . Our space warriors will live in fabulous huge orbiting space towers so they can keep an eye on  the various other countries who may threaten us. We will build space hotels and charge visitors from other countries sky-high fees to stay there. Yes, I can see it now … America will achieve total space domination with no collision and we will set our own rules of the road. It will be my way on the space highway. No collision… total dominance… and peace and prosperity for all.

Make space great again

On By gyonas9 Comments

President Trump is calling for the creation of a “Space Force,” a new sixth branch of the military that will ensure “American dominance in space.” Personally, I am whole-heartedly in favor of this proposal. After all,we won’t need to buy new uniforms — we can just find the old ones left over from the Star Trek show and save a lot of money. Creating the Space Force will also bring meaningful employment to many lobbyists, contractors and Congress people who will be chasing after the new funding. It reminds me of when Harold Agnew, my former mentor and the person who initiated my SDI involvement, warned me that the proposed SDI initiative could result in many deaths because many people would be trampled in the uncontrolled stampede to get the new money.

Another source of business would be the turnover of all of offices leased near the Pentagon, and of course all of the new construction for the government labs and offices. Hotels will also be filled with the multitudes of attendees at the high cost conferences explaining the technical challenges and the funding opportunities. Furthermore, if we invite foreign participation, each country will need to host cocktail parties and special events at their embassies, Caterers, bartenders, clothing stores, drycleaners… the number of businesses that stand to profit from Space Force will be endless—talk about an economic boost.

Space Force offers opportunities for the media and information industries as well. Learned professors from Ivy League universities will attack the new military branch and appear on countless talk shows, necessitating counter arguments from proponents. The clergy will need their own air time to go along with their sermons and the arms control advocates will need their own conferences, pamphlets and books. The new Space Force will boost the economy, provide jobs for the unemployables, and will offer a viable recycling outlet for previously useless Star Trek uniforms. I believe this is the best new idea since Star Wars. May the Space Farce be with you, indeed.

predator drone

A revolution in missile defense

On By gyonasLeave a comment

In the past few months, this blog has been focused on missile defense and has been enthusiastic about remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) used for boost phase intercept (BPI).  Up until recently, my knowledge of remotely piloted aircraft has been based on reading available literature. Recently, however, I had the opportunity to visit the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator factory in San Diego and “kick the tires.” The reality was totally convincing. The engineering elegance, manufacturing effectiveness and comprehensive flexibility of the systems engineering were breath taking.

These “little” aircraft are cheap to buy and operate and can go in harm’s way with extensive precision reconnaissance and surveillance connected to remote precision decision making. They also can deliver ordinance for a precision kill followed by kill assessment.  Several years ago I managed a group at Sandia Labs focused on technology components to achieve Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Target Assessment, Kill and Kill Assessment. I called this RSTAKA. In the Predator factory, I saw the entire package that I had envisioned as a military response to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

In 1996, I published an article on the subject in the “Armed Forces Journal” entitled The Option of Last Resort. At the time, I did not imagine the future capabilities of remotely piloted aircraft, sensors, computers and munitions. Today these advances are deployed on the GA RPAs that may provide the capability for not only boost phase intercept but also pre-boost attack. All of the preparations for launch could become targets and offer one more layer in missile defense.

Unmanned aircraft, such as the Predator, have crossed a new horizon in their defense capabilities. After visiting the GA factory, I am even more certain that RPAs will provide the tools America needs for effective missile defense. Learn more about past, present and future revolutions in missile defense in my book “Death Rays and Delusions” available at https://www.amazon.com/Death-Delusions-Gerold-Yonas-Ph-D/dp/0692919554