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2004-12-19 Europe

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Posted by God Save The World 2004-12-19 4:50:46 PM|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Hmmmm...this is not good news. The Frogs are apt to sell that data to the highest bidder, and Al-Q can probably bid on things, and if not, Iran, Syria, Egypt or any of the you-name-it Islamic regimes will be able to get that info on us and our mil ops in the region.

700km is well within the range of our ASAT missiles. It's about time we validated the system. Since the ASAT is/can be launched from an F-15, any place on earth we can fly an F-15 to is the apparent launch point of the missile, in case the Frogs have the capability to track the ASAT back to it's source, which I doubt. I can think of a few sports on the globe that would make good release points, taking the heat off us.

Posted by Rivrdog 2004-12-19 2:37:22 AM|| [http://rivrdog.typepad.com] 2004-12-19 2:37:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Launching a Satellite is one thing, but what about repairs? What if a problem in the components is found? Guess who they will have crawl for to get it fixed? That's right, us. And we can just put in a command over-ride when that happens. France launching a Satellite isn't big news.

Posted by Charles 2004-12-19 8:10:45 AM|| 2004-12-19 8:10:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 That is a good point about the Frog's selling that data, its not like their military is capable of acting on anything the satellite turns up.
Unless of course the info has something to do with unarmed black African civilians.

Posted by JerseyMike 2004-12-19 8:17:18 AM|| 2004-12-19 8:17:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Wasn't France one of the key contractors on the Euro-Mars lander? Whom are the French going to spy on? There many enemies are ???

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2004-12-19 9:13:18 AM|| 2004-12-19 9:13:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Gonna be fun to see how much Delta V this puppies got.

Posted by Shipman 2004-12-19 11:39:22 AM|| 2004-12-19 11:39:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 Riverdog-
I would not be at all suprised to know that we have an ASAT, but I don't think it's the old Altair system you're referring to. Altair was based on the old AGM-69 SRAM, which was removed from service in the late 80s after it was determined the rocket motors were cracking badly. There may very well be a couple out there, but at the very least the motors are a couple of decades old, and I'm not sure how safe they would be.

Best regards,
Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2004-12-19 12:15:54 PM|| 2004-12-19 12:15:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 They named the spy satellite the "al-Chirac"

Posted by Capt America 2004-12-19 12:22:33 PM|| 2004-12-19 12:22:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 I'm more worried about it falling on my head.

Posted by 2b 2004-12-19 2:37:57 PM|| 2004-12-19 2:37:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 They can take all the photos they want, but it takes an experienced, trained interpreter to convert that into useful information. The few French photo interpreters I've met are mediocre at best. The people in the Middle East can buy the raw data, but can they use it? I've seen the French "SPOT" imagery - it's pretty good stuff, about on the par with our Landsat photography. I don't have a lot of fear about people using this to target the US, however. A 700km sun-synchronous orbit means it passes over a given part of the earth at the same (local) time every day, usually around local noon. It's not hard to determine what part of the earth's surface it'll cover at a given time. Easy to spoof. Remember my comments from a few days ago - it's the capabilities that make it a good or a poor imaging platform. If it can only scan within a few dozen degrees of NADIR, it has a limited capability. Without an all-weather capability, or a wide range, it's still capable, but not necessarily dangerous.

Posted by Old Patriot 2004-12-19 4:08:45 PM|| [http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2004-12-19 4:08:45 PM|| Front Page Top

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