How is this smart? US was already able to strike any place on the globe, what happens if this motivates the US enemies also have weapons in space and then US mainland becomes strike-able.

What was the thing that the US military previously couldn't blow up? The enemy now can have giant piece of hard metal in orbit and blow up previously %100 out of range data centers for example.

Very unwise action on US part.

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Merad an hour ago | parent | next [-]

"Space weapons" here most likely means some combination of anti-satellite weapons and electronic warfare such as GPS jammers. AFAIK it's been widely believed that the USSR/Russia has had these capabilities in orbit since the 80s. I'd be willing to bet that the US has had them for decades as well, it just hasn't been publicly acknowledged.

	▲	mrtksn 41 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		For some reason they did not provide any details beyond that they have kinetic and non-kinetic means. Kinetik indeed can mean just ability to blow up satellites but IMHO it is good enough to trigger an arms race.

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WarmWash 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

More unwise is doing nothing and letting adversaries have it.

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ajsnigrutin 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I always find it funny here, how out of all the targets "the enemy" could hit, HN-er is afraid they'll hit the datacenters :)

You don't need space weapons to hit datacenters, you need one van full of explosives and someone willing to die to deliver it to a datacenter.

To temporarily disable them, you just need a cheap drone with some explosives.

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mrtksn 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Finding someone who is both willing and able to deliver explosives to a datacenter wouldn't be easy, the last stime something like that happen is 9/11. Throwing large masses on the other hand is not so hard as countries like Iran already have missile building capacity and are partners with actual space capable Russia.

Also, the super expensive data centers are great targets, probably much better targets than US can hit in Iran for example. What happens if those Nvidia chips that are churning the economy start to getting blown up by carefully de-orbited stones?

	▲	MSFT_Edging 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		There were suspicious rednecks shooting out power stations a couple years ago. The FBI routinely finds mentally ill people to convince/encourage/fund a terrorist attack and arrest them after they purchase materials with FBI money and call it a sting. I don't think it's nearly as hard to find someone as you think.

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lithos an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Hit enough transformers and it will be a very long temporary.

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Invictus0 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You thought we had a whole Space Force without any Forces?

	▲	mrtksn 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well, let's hope that these forces are going to get better outcomes than the forces that fought in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran. It's so ridiculous to elevate the war zone when you were far away and out of reach currently. US is so target rich that I will be very surprised if US enemies leave those alone once US paved the way to the new frontiers.