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Monday, February 22, 2016

RUSSIA TO DEVELOP ICBM MODIFICATIONS TO DESTROY ASTEROIDS

Ms. K.F. sent this article to us, and it's worth pondering in the context of all the spate of space-related issues we're been looking at on this website, particularly with respect to the impending commercialization of space, and its consequent inevitable weaponization.
Before looking at that, however, I'd like to remind readers once again of the amazing affidavit of Dr. Carol Rosin. Dr. Rosin, if one is unfamiliar with her story, was a professional colleague of the late Dr. Wernher von Braun, the German rocket scientist who with his team of other German (and American) engineers, was instrumental in launching the USA into space, and, of course, for providing the technical know-how that ultimately made America's ICBM and SLBM nuclear capability possible. After his resignation from NASA, von Braun took a position at Fairchild Industries, where he worked closely with Dr. Rosin, where, shortly before his death, he told Dr. Rosin about "the plan" that would be used to put weapons in space. The move would be cloaked behind a progression of "threats", first Communism(we need a missile defense against those Godless Russians), then terrorists (!), then "nations of concern" would be the excuse to weaponize space (think "axis of evil" here: North Korea, Iran, etc), then asteroids, and finally, extra-terrestrials.
If you're familiar with Dr. Rosin's story, she first shared this years ago with "UFO disclosure" advocate Dr. Steven Greer, who published her statements along with many others, in a collection. Dr. Rosin, unfortunately, was not taken too seriously at the time. But then came the collapse of the Soviet Union, 9/11, and... well, you get the idea. We're now well into the "Asteroid" stage of the Rosin affidavit, and people are less inclined to scoff. I'm in that :"non-scoffing" crowd,
I've also been arguing that with the increased commercialization of space and all the talk about asteroid mining and so on, that inevitably this will mean the not just the militarization of space(we've got that already, in spades), but its actual weaponization, as companies will need to protect their assets from rivals or "whomever."
Well, Russia now seems to be willing to address the asteroid threat, and you can chalk this one up to another "hit" in Dr. Rosin's and von Braun's predictions, and so far, it looks like she's and he's been batting 1000:
Russia's improved ballistic missiles to be tested as asteroid killers
Take note of these statements:
Russian scientists have developed a project of upgrading intercontinental ballistic missiles to destroy near-Earth meteorites 20-50 meters in size, leading researcher of the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau Sabit Saitgarayev told TASS on Thursday.
The scientists would like to test the improved missiles’ capabilities against the asteroid Apophis expected to come dangerously close to the Earth in 2036, the scientist said.
...
Several million US dollars and the authorities’ permission are required to modernize ICBMs, the scientist said, without specifying, however, whether the required funds and the authorization for these works were available.
The scientist said design works in this area were already under way.
So here's my high octane speculation: I don't for a moment think that the funding will be lacking for several reasons. Firstly, it should be recalled that one month prior to the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013, Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev stated that the world should develop an international asteroid defense system, but that if the world failed to do so, Russia should do so on its own. Secondly, it should be recalled that Mr. Medvedev also stated quite explicitly that Russia already possessed the means to detroy asteroids. What were the means? Interestingly enough, he also said this would be "thermonuclear weapons and other means." It's that "other means" that intrigued me then, and does now, for it implies methods that are, in a word, "exotic", such as some sort of directed energy weapon.  Then we were treated to Russian announcements of a kind of "gravity wave" weapon under development by Dr. Evgenny Podkletnov, who maintained they already had such a weapon that could crush/vaporize objects at a distance of about two kilometers. Granted, it's not much use for asteroid-vaporizing(if it even exists), but one suspects that if the weapon exists, then it is to such weapons what the bombards of the high Renaissance are to the Paris Gun of 1918. Range can be extended, and after all, the Russians love their artillery (just ask the Germans).
But to come down to earth for a moment: imagine the Russians actually successfully test such a modified ICBM on an asteroid. The real message would be geopolitical, and a clear shot across the bows of the west and its space commercialization plans, and would touch off a new arms race for "space-adaptable" weapons platforms. And ultimately, the best way to defend against asteroids, with (or without) missiles, is to base them in space. If all this speculation has any merit whatsoever, than one can expect similar annoucements to come from other countries in the near future... watch for them, they'll eventually come. And then will come the calls for an international authority to control all such weapons, probably under the auspices of the UN Security Council, or some newly created agency of it.

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