Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

newatlas.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 63 posts

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#51

Post by NotSammyHagar »

perigee58 wrote: post #36

The US military is looking to outfit Starlink, Kuiper and other commercial LEO satellite constellations with hypersonic missiles, for an on-demand kill of any spot on Earth within 90 seconds. Project has been in the works for nearly two decades but the exponential reduction in cost per kg to LEO has made this nightmare finally fully viable. See Space Development Agency under the newly minted Space Force for more info…

Do you have any evidence, or links? They would have to be really tiny missiles, so it's not really possible today. Also you couldn't just hide stuff easily in the starlink constellation because they are always moving around.

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#52

Post by NotSammyHagar »

dirtyid wrote: post #46
perigee58 wrote: post #36

The US military is looking to outfit Starlink, Kuiper and other commercial LEO satellite constellations with hypersonic missiles, for an on-demand kill of any spot on Earth within 90 seconds. Project has been in the works for nearly two decades but the exponential reduction in cost per kg to LEO has made this nightmare finally fully viable. See Space Development Agency under the newly minted Space Force for more info…

This seems like the kind of space weaponization that's in every significant geopolitical players interest to ban. Ditto with conjectures that cost-effective commercial launches makes SDI satellite missile defense viable. It's just going to encourage all the players to go all-in on ASAT, park SLBMs near each others coasts while racing to a constellation of hypersonic missiles of their own. The last thing US wants to d…

yes, it's incredibly destabilizing if you worry in 2 minutes all your bases and defenses could be destroyed, leading to accidentally launches. In the cold war it almost happened by accident (launch or we'll lose our ability to respond!) multiple times. Short time to react just makes it much much worse!

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#53

Post by Djemanac »

m0zg wrote: post #24
fistfucker3000 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could spend a lot of money on technology which is actually serving the public good

To what end, fistfucker3000? How do you convince people to spend unlimited amounts of money other than by convincing them that their very survival depends on it? And the threat needs to be acute, too: this is what they're trying to do with climate change now, but nobody really gives a shit about something that may or may not happen 50 years from now.

Ask Elon Musk he seems to be good at that

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#54

Post by Djemanac »

m0zg wrote: post #14
newguy1234 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are smart enough to work on projects like that you should be putting your efforts to the benefits of humanity, not helping regimes build weapons of mass destruction. We need to end this madness we call the "arms race". This threat is greater than global warming.

The arms race was the main driver of progress in the 20th century, with countless civilian applications, including the Internet. We could use a good old fashioned arms race nowadays. It creates demand for top notch science and engineering like nothing else. And you could argue this benefits humanity, too, even besides the technology transfer. There hasn't been a world war since 1945, and the only real reason for that…

Did someone measure that claim? There was a lot of progress in 20th century. Calling arms race a main driver is a pretty wild claim but seems to be repeated all the time by geopolitics and army experts. That doesn't make it true though. Development of internet was by no means a single source event. That is case for most of technology also and main driving force for progress of internet was definitely market incentive.

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#56

Post by extra88 »

dirtyid wrote: post #48
retiredalien wrote: post #35

Lockheed was intimately involved in the current UFO story being promoted. They had worked on and off for years with Bigelow Aerospace. When Bigelow won the AATIP contract, 2 of the 38 Defense Intelligence Reference Documents were written by highly credible Lockheed scientists. It’s assumed that Bigelow affiliates initially enchanted Lockheed with the credibility of former intelligence employees. In 2015, Lockheed exe…

>it would be illegal for the US Government to engage in disinformation Smith–Mundt Act of 2012 legalized domestic dissemination of propaganda.

"The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (Public Law 80-402), popularly called the Smith–Mundt Act, is the basic legislative authorization for propaganda activities conducted by the U.S. Department of State, sometimes called 'public diplomacy.' [...] The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 [...] allowing for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be available within the United States."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith–Mundt_Act

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#57

Post by pandaman »

Djemanac wrote: post #47
pandaman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Russia, after seeing the nuclear weapon the Party realized that the Marxism-Leninism alone is not going to produce such a weapon and had allowed and forced real sciences to be taught in schools. Likewise, the "Sputnik moment" in the US resulted in massive education improvements, e.g. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/10/how-sputnik-c...

Those better schools payed up real quick. Soviet union created atomic bomb in 1949.

The 1949 device was likely done with stolen technology both from the USA and Germany. Phystech opened in 1951.

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#58

Post by monadic2 »

m0zg wrote: post #25
monadic2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how much we could have progressed if we just focused on progress rather than acquiring power through intimidation in some artificial zero sum game.

Yeah, I'm trying to imagine that, but then I remember that we live in the real world here, with finite resources, and thousands of years of history, not in some utopia where everyone sings kumbaya and dances merrily around a campfire.

Yes, this is true: If you denuclearize you too will end up with a bayonet up your ass in the street.

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#59

Post by monadic2 »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #20
monadic2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is stupid. of course you can die, that’s no excuse for giving up on human values.

Not necessarily. Nuclear weapons have thus far arguably been the single greatest global stabilizer of all time.

For those allied to nuclear powers, sure. Ask other countries how stable life has been since nukes popped up.

Re: Lockheed Martin to develop ground-launched hypersonic missile

#60

Post by lvs »

ardy42 wrote: post #31
lvs wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absurd. When does it end? Or are we just caught in this dangerous resource drain ad infinitum?

> When does it end? I already answered that: >> This particular madness will continue until all major powers come to some measure of political unity. A helpful first step would be for all of them to have elected officials. Alternatively, the US and other democracies could be destroyed and their populations either exterminated or forcefully assimilated into some kind of authoritarian world superstate.

> Alternatively, the US and other democracies could be destroyed and their populations either exterminated or forcefully assimilated into some kind of authoritarian world superstate.

A false choice you attempt to make true by ensuring the cycle of escalation never ends. No US war since 1945 has been undertaken for the purpose you ascribe.

Post reply on HN