Air Force launching satellites to spy on other satellites

Too little, too late.

America’s adversaries have deployed satellites that will physically dismantle US satellites and laser weapons that will pluck targets out of space. In reality and worst-case scenario, it doesn’t do much good to focus on satellites that merely ‘spot’ other satellites when the enemy has the means of destroying yours.

America abandoned the Star Wars system long ago because it cost too much and was deemed an impossible science fiction fantasy to develop and deploy. You can call it mothballing or sabotage. Meanwhile, America’s enemies have built theirs — namely Russia and China. Although they haven’t knocked yet, the barbarians are already at the gate.

But hey, no problem. As long as people can still go shopping and still watch the latest NBA game distraction it means threats can be whitewashed, right?

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is about to put a new advanced satellite into space to spy on other countries’ satellites.

On Wednesday, a Delta IV rocket will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and place two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites into orbit. They will be the first GSSAP satellites ever launched.

“This neighborhood watch twosome … will be on the lookout for nefarious capability other nations might try to place in that critical orbital regime,” Gen. William Shelton, the head of Air Force Space Command, told reporters at the Pentagon.

Highway to the danger zone? Non-pilot given command of Air Force in Pacific

The White House has picked the first female general to head the Air Force in the Pacific, which will make her the first non-pilot to command air power in such a large theater of operation.

The Pentagon announced this week that Air Force Lt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson has been nominated for promotion to four-star general and as commander of Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force component of U.S. Pacific Command. It is a major combatant command whose air, ground and naval forces have broad responsibility for security in the Asia-Pacific region. Her nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation.

…

Gen. Robinson is not a career pilot. Her military profession is air battle manager. She has served aboard the Air Force’s surveillance aircraft, the E-3 AWACs and E-8 JSTARS, and she was nominated for a promotion amid a drive for more diversity in the Pentagon.

A retired pilot said there is a reason the Air Force historically has put a pilot in charge of large combatant command Air Forces.

“It is because you make operational decisions that require the understanding of what you are going to ask pilots to execute in combat where the wrong decisions mean the difference between life and death,” the retired pilot said. “Now her vice commander and director of operations will be rated fighter pilots, but still she makes the decisions.”

Pentagon Urged to Focus on ‘Great Power Conflict’ to Save Budget

Forget terrorism. The Pentagon’s best chance to field the best military with the smaller budget imposed by sequestration may just lie in preparing for nuclear war with Russia and China.

According to a new study, United States defense leaders should focus more on a “great power conflict” reflective of a newly aggressive Russia and rapidly modernizing China. Doing so would force the Defense Department to modernize its existing force and invest significantly in maintaining technological advantages at the expense of unlikely-to-be used ships, aircraft and soldiers. Among the arsenal the U.S. should keep: the full triad of bombers, submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles meant to deter or carry out nuclear warfare.

While the space between Syria and Iraq commands headlines this month, it’s Moscow and Beijing that leads researchers to offer an unexpectedly “go big or go home” proposition for the U.S. military. The route offered on Wednesday by budget experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, calls for moving $10 billion from the procurement budget and “force structure,” (military jargon for the number of people in the military and all that is required to support them, roughly) and giving those funds to investments. The CSIS plan would increase the number of attack submarines at sea, significantly ramp-up surveillance in both air and space, and emphasize select ground troops like special operations forces and heavy infantry. The costs would be absorbed by a reduction in aircraft carriers, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and the Air Force’s shorter-range aircraft.

America’s Nuclear Arsenal Is Still Controlled By Antique Computers With Floppy Disks

It’s a wonder as to why many people think the United States is still untouchable or a superpower when the US nuclear arsenal is plugged into decades-old computer systems still using floppy discs. They’re still living in the 80’s, when the last piece of new technology was introduced to the arsenal. Meanwhile, the Russians and Chinese both continue technology advances in their nuclear arsenal as well as modernize their militaries across the board.

 

 

In a report to air on Sunday, CBS Correspondent Lesley Stahl traveled to a missile field near an Air Force base in Cheyenne, Wyo., revealing a nondescript site — the silo is below ground — that looks like a fenced-in lot surrounded by farms.

Troubles with U.S. nuclear missile program run deep

Trouble inside the Air Force’s nuclear missile force runs deeper and wider than officials have let on.

An unpublished study for the Air Force, obtained by The Associated Press, cites “burnout” among launch officers with their fingers on the triggers of 450 weapons of mass destruction. Also, evidence of broader behavioral issues across the intercontinental ballistic missile force, including sexual assaults and domestic violence.

The study, provided to the AP in draft form, says that court-martial rates in the nuclear missile force in 2011 and 2012 were more than twice as high as in the overall Air Force. Administrative punishments, such as written reprimands for rules violations and other misbehavior, also were higher in those years.

Officers who hold the trigger for US nuclear forces caught leaving the blast-doors open

THEY hold the trigger to the world’s biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons. So why have they been caught napping, with the bomb-proof doors left wide open?

Twice this year alone, US Air Force officers entrusted with the launch keys to nuclear-tipped missiles have been caught leaving open a blast door that is intended to help prevent terrorists or other intruders from entering their underground command post.

It’s also supposed to protect them from a surprise nuclear attack.

U.S. Air Force Lacks Preparedness for Syria Strike

If these cuts have affected the US Military’s ability to strike (or even defend), imagine the impact of the USA suicidally reducing its nuclear arsenal, which is already underway — while Russia and China both build theirs up and modernize. The fact that both Russia and China are also building their “Star Wars” programs to weaponize space (while the USA is not, again) shows in itself they have no intention of playing by the same rules they agreed to, nor do they plan on staying on the same military capability level as America. The last modern American nuclear ICBM was built in the late 1990’s. If one has been paying attention to the news the last five years, they would realize that China and Russia are close to, or on par, with US Military capabilities. They just don’t advertise as much. One could also expect them to surpass US capabilities before 2020, if not earlier.

General Mark Welsh has said recent cutbacks to the U.S. Air Force have limited it’s readiness to carry out a major offensive.

…

Emphasizing cuts including the grounding of tactical combat squadrons earlier this year, Welsh said the Air Force would carry out any mission assigned to it but added,  “We are not going to be as ready as we would like.”

Like U.S., Latest Russian Bombers Testing Hypersonic Weapons

Not to be outdone by the Americans, Russia’s next generation bomber, the PAK-DA, will be loaded with the latest in hypersonic weaponry, the Defense Ministry told Ria Novosti newswire on Friday.

The PAK-DA is Russia’s answer to the newest stealth bombers being built in the United States by Boeing and Lockheed Martin . Equipping them with hypersonic weaponry just puts Russia on par with air defense technologies already being tested in the U.S.

Russian bomber conducts practice strikes on U.S. missile defenses in Asia

A Russian bomber recently carried out simulated cruise missile attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Asia, raising new questions about Moscow’s goal in future U.S.-Russian defense talks.

According to U.S. officials, a Russian Tu-22M Backfire bomber on Feb. 26 simulated firing air-launched cruise missiles at an Aegis ship deployed near Japan as part of U.S. missile defenses.

A second mock attack was conducted Feb. 27 against a ground-based missile defense site in Japan that officials did not identify further.

…

The bomber targeting comes as Russia is building up forces in the Pacific by modernizing submarines and building a spy ship specifically for intelligence-gathering against U.S. missile defenses.

F-35 design problems make night flying impossible, increase risk of being shot down, U.S. pilots warn

If F-35s are recommended to avoid going in the clouds or bad weather, that means that civilian airliners are more capable than the nation’s latest mililtary jets. That speaks volumes about the state of the U.S. military and what is happening to it. It’s crumbling.

From radars that don’t work, to blurry vision from the aircraft’s sophisticated helmet, to an inability to fly through clouds, the report, which includes pilot comments, paints a picture of a jet nowhere near ready for real-life operations.

…

The testing, which was supposed to determine whether aircraft the U.S. had already bought from Lockheed Martin were good enough to start training U.S. fighter pilots with, was actually supposed to take place in August 2011.

The Nation’s ICBM Force: Increasingly Creaky Broken Missiles

As the Air Force begins to dust off plans for the Minuteman III ICBM replacement, a stark choice faces the service.

On one hand, the time has come to replace them. On the other, the Air Force is strapped for cash, victim to a perfect storm of bureaucratic bloat, several rounds of defense cuts, and a fighter fleet exhausted by war and age.

Obama Closing Air Defense System on U.S./Mexico Border: Texas & America Vulnerable to Attack from Low Altitude Missiles and Aircraft

Air Force’s Air Defense Radar Systems along U.S./Mexico Border will SHUTDOWN on March 15^th, 2013

On January 17^th, 2013, Exelis Systems Corporation sent out an email (see email below) to all of its employees informing them that on March 15^th, 2013 all TARS Air Defense Mission Operations will permanently cease. These TARS Air Defense sites were under the control of the United States Air Force. On January 15^th, 2013, the Air Force informed Exelis (the defense contractor running the TARS sites) that the TARS sites will be shut down. Exelis tried to then negotiate with the Department of Homeland Security to see if they would take over the vital project, but it seems as though those negotiations have failed.

What does this mean?