OK, guys, this is the first post I ever started, so be patient.

[link to www.militarytimes.com (secure)]

SecDef Mattis has stated something rather obvious, that China and Russia already HAVE anti-satellite weapons. If there was a war, we could lose critical recon, GPS, and comm capability leading to our defeat.

The USA HAD an ASAT back in the 1970s that was supposedly scrapped.

Some of the "Star Wars" technologies that I worked on in the 1980s when I was an aerospace engineer would be ideal.

Nope, not talking about lasers. The problem with lasers in space is that you need a serious power supply that vibrates. The vibration makes it almost impossible to stay on target to hit something thousands of miles away. Talon Gold proved that.

However, kinetic energy interceptors are very feasible. There is a non-laser directed energy weapon that is all solid state that I would be surprised if we have not tested in space. I don't want to mention what it was here, but I saw it in Popular Science one time.

Note that the treaty only prohibits "weapons of mass destruction", i.e., nukes in space.

However, I do not expect our enemies to follow treaties. For example, in the 1970s the USSR had FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System) where they could put very large thermonuke warheads in low Earth orbit to be detonated when they passed over the USA. High altitude thermonukes could not only create EMP, but could set entire regions on fire.

OK, GLP Brethren, I know you have opinions.