Elon Musk Deploying Powerful Armed Satellites To Beat Russia

Elon Musk Deploying Powerful Armed Satellites To Beat Russia: The power tussle between countries doesn’t seem to be coming to an end soon. The superpowers continue to display their sophisticated and technological weapons. In response, Elon Musk has come up with powerful armed satellites, but he is not doing it alone this time. 

In the 1960s, Space, the only place where weapons were a scarce commodity, was in a frenzy. During the Cold War, the two superpowers unanimously agreed that space was too delicate to give any weapons, and they both came up with and accepted the Space Treaty.

China is at the US with its usual moves – like imitating Soviet and American weapons systems. Therefore, how is it that China is laughing at the US? Also, how will the duo of Space Force and Elon Musk save America’s spot in the world? 

In August, China planned on testing a sophisticated hypersonic fraction orbital bombardment system (FOBS). The US does not match this capability. Therefore, the US intelligence community has noticed this, and something has to be done swiftly.

The two superpowers have shown that the gap between their military technology is smaller than the Pentagon for the first time. Let’s quickly go back to history. In the 1960s, the engineers and scientists in the Soviet Union adopted the same tech. 

This involves launching a nuclear weapon onto a lower Earth orbit of about 150 kilometers, where it will stay as it goes above the planet before deorbiting back down over the target. During this time, the Soviets were motivated by the USS formidable missile warning network that inspired the Soviets.

Though FOBS allowed a missile to be launched into a pole-to-pole orbit above Earth, fly up over the mainland US from the south, and wreak its destruction. Fortunately, the Soviets did not use this weapon. 

This was due to the US upgrading its early warning systems to include space-based surveillance for missile heat signatures. Today, many countries in the world, including the US and Russia, are trying to develop such a system. 

Financial Times published a report on October 27, 2021 that set the fire among the intelligence community. China developed and tested a FOBS in August last year. According to the report, a missile China’s defense establishment tested attained a speed of 33,800 kilometers an hour, more than 27 times the speed of sound in air. 

It circled the planet once before descending on a target in China, missing it by just around 40 kilometers. The vehicle flew very fast, making it a hypersonic FOBS; this made it more difficult to track. 

Marco Langbroek, an expert on space situational awareness, wrote in light of the report that while the US Space Force space-based infrared system would still spot a FOBS launch, the FOBS might be able to evade the country’s ballistic missile defense system.

One of FOBS’ few advantages left is it may beat the BMD and strike targets within the mainland US. This is why the Chinese test is likely to have spooked the US. Fravel told the Financial Times that simply testing a missile doesn’t have to mean China has a functional hypersonic FOBS. 

Also, other unknown intelligence community officials quoted in the report have said that the fact that China has been able to test such a weapon should have shocked the US, which has belittled the extent to which China has modernized its military. 

As One unnamed official told the newspaper, “We have no idea how they did this, but it doesn’t mean America will last well, not until Elon Musk is here.” 

Recently, SpaceX and the Pentagon signed a contract to build a new rocket that can launch into space and deliver up to 80 tons of cargo and weaponry in just one hour collectively. Tests on the rocket are likely to commence this year. 

This rocket will convey weapons around the world 15 times faster than any aircraft in existence like the US’s C-17 Globemaster. Have you thought about moving the equivalent of a C-17 payload anywhere on the globe in less than an hour? 

At a conference on Wednesday, General Steven Lyons, head of US Transportation Command, said the new contract is further evidence that SpaceX is leaning hard into military partnerships. 

Elon Musk’s company had a deal with the military’s Space Development Agency to develop missile-tracking satellites last year. With this, China would hardly outpower these satellites. 

Before this, the army went to SpaceX about turning its constellation of Starlink broadband satellites into a new military navigation network. In August, after the Space Force awarded the contract to SpaceX, the officials let slip earlier this year that they were already working closely with SpaceX. 

The new weapon delivery system appears like a militarized version of something that Musk proposed back in 2017 when he talked about passenger space travel. Then, Musk proposed to launch passengers into space and land them back to their destination.

In partnership with Elon Musk, the US Air Force considers the deployment of new advanced weapon systems, which are presently under development under Project Thor. 

While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prevents the US from launching nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons in space, this new weapon will deliver more powerful strikes than most nuclear and chemical attacks and avoid the unfavorable fallout, which follows nuclear strikes. 

Developing a non-nuclear space-based superweapon also gives the US an advantage against rivals with a no first use policy for their nuclear arsenals, such as China and North Korea. This allows the US to strike targets with the same level of force as a nuclear warhead without escalation to a nuclear war. 

Investment in such a capability would come amid growing American interest in non-nuclear strategic weapons. This involves investments in the conventional prompt Global Strike hypersonic intercontinental-range missile program for the Navy submarines and stealth destroyers. 

Project Thor will ensure that telephone pole size tungsten rods 20 feet long and one foot in diameter are dropped from Elon Musk’s satellite. This will strike hardened bunkers and underground nuclear complexes. 

These rods will not convey warheads but will strike at 10 times the speed of sound, which allows them to cause massive damage with the sheer speed of their effect. Also, this would provide an alternative to both nuclear bunker busters and conventional ones like the GBU 57. 

North Korea and Russia, both of which deploy considerable assets from well hardened installations are the potential targets of these weapons together with China, which has been hardening its missile sites and nuclear equipment. 

The cost of deploying these rods that weigh over 10,000 kilograms because of the density of the tungsten may be prohibitive. Each rod costs over $230 million. That is several times the price of conventional and nuclear bunker busters, but it is a well thought and effective strategy. That’s not all. 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX might be more capable than we imagine. Recently, a Twitter user reminded Musk of Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin; he put cases against SpaceX. He tweeted, maybe zap we know who is on the head with our space lasers. 

He only replied to a different Twitter user who wondered at what point does Elon Musk have the Falcon Heavy hover over Bezos’ house all day. Let’s add this: if Musk controls any lethal space lasers, it means they are not publicly documented.

And you should know that the latest generation of SpaceX Starlink satellites is equipped with laser terminals. These terminals allow them to communicate with each other without any difficulty. 

Also, they might be developed for communication, but maybe they’re also designed to strike Chinese and Korean dictators. Realistically, space-based laser weapons orbiting the Earth is nothing new. It has been a part of pop culture and government projects for a long – let’s say for several decades. 

From James Bond’s GoldenEye to Ronald Reagan’s Ambitious Star Wars program, we can see examples of this. Recently in some reports, the Pentagon has started developing a framework. This framework will help promote the innovation of what it calls “direct energy weapons”. 

It fabricated this weapon to weaponize laser systems, using it against military targets. The US military would spend more than double on dues between 2017 and 2019, from $535 million to 1.1 billion. Similarly, other nations like China and Russia will also invest in these new systems. 

We believe it is safe to say even if other superpowers have money, they cannot have Elon Musk. The tech billionaire is a great asset to the United States. His technology power is a well-packaged blessing for the US and its military system.