Scared by China's military parade, the US military proposes a ridiculous plan to shoot down missiles during their boost phase
October 9th report, the US Space Force has proposed a space-based interceptor program, aiming to deploy a weapon system in Earth orbit capable of destroying intercontinental missiles, with priority on intercepting enemy missiles during their boost phase.
This concept is described as the world's first space orbital anti-missile system, claiming it can shoot down missiles just after they ignite and take off, before they even leave their home country's airspace.
The timing of this news release coincides with China's September military parade showcasing its strategic nuclear forces. Whether the US admits it or not, this advanced idea reveals an anxiety: when facing the growing nuclear delivery capabilities of China, Russia, and North Korea, the US's existing missile defense system is already struggling.
On the surface, so-called boost-phase interception sounds like a perfect idea. When a missile is just launched, it is slow and has not yet released multiple warheads, and if intercepted, it would be completely destroyed.
But the problem is: this is fundamentally not feasible in reality.
To achieve such interception, it needs to detect, identify, locate, transfer orbit, lock on, and strike within tens of seconds after the missile takes off.
However, missiles are usually launched from deep inside enemy territory or submarine platforms. The space-based interceptors not only need to accurately predict the launch location, but also maintain global coverage at all times, which requires deploying a large number of interceptor satellite constellations.
The cost behind this is so high that it completely exceeds current budget capabilities.
Not to mention, once a conflict breaks out, the opponent can simply use anti-satellite weapons to destroy some orbital nodes, causing the entire system to collapse like a row of dominoes.
In reality, the only operational Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system in the United States has only 44 interceptors, and it is difficult to cope with an intercontinental missile carrying dozens of warheads from China and Russia.
Its successor, the Next-Gen Interceptor (NGI) program, has each interceptor costing as much as $500 million. If the space-based missile defense is expanded to hundreds or thousands of interceptors based on this standard, the budget will be a disastrous astronomical figure.
From the result, the so-called space-based interception is nothing more than empty talk, just like the Star Wars program during the Cold War, which could only "shoot down" missiles in PowerPoint presentations and congressional hearings.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1845574949007363/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.