DEFENCE experts this week reacted with scepticism to the latest brainwave
from the Pentagon. The Bush administration wants to revive a defunct NASA
spaceplane and use it to drop bunker-busting bombs from space.
Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld is studying the idea of a 鈥渟ub-orbital
space vehicle鈥� that can fly halfway around the world in 30 minutes鈥攁nd
bomb targets from an untouchable altitude of 60 miles. The aim would be to
strike hard and fast at the first hint of conflict. Currently, the US Air
Force鈥檚 B2 stealth bomber takes many hours to reach its global targets.
NASA鈥檚 aborted X-33 spaceplane could be adopted as the 鈥渟pace bomber鈥�,
because the project came so close to completion. In March, bloated costs led to
NASA quitting development of a half-sized version of the X-33, despite spending
$900 million getting it 85 per cent complete. But research on the craft鈥檚
advanced and highly controllable 鈥渓inear aerospike鈥� rocket engine has continued
at a NASA plant in Mississippi.
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A weapons designer at QinetiQ, Britain鈥檚 top defence lab鈥攆ormerly the
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency鈥攕ays: 鈥淚 can see the advantage in
this plan, in that any weapon will be well supersonic when it hits the ground
from 60 miles up. It will be like the Nazi V2 rocket鈥攊t will hit the
ground followed by its own sonic boom,鈥� he says. It would have enough kinetic
energy to shatter bunkers and silos without explosive warheads.
But the QinetiQ source鈥攚ho wishes to remain anonymous鈥攕ays the
spaceplane will face 鈥渕onster technical issues鈥�. Atmospheric friction would heat
up a bomb considerably on its 60 mile drop, he says, ionising air around it,
preventing radio or GPS guidance signals reaching its electronics. 鈥淚 don鈥檛
understand why they want to go to all this trouble when they could do the same
job with a ballistic missile,鈥� he says.
Paul Stares, a director at the Centre for International Security and
Cooperation at Stanford University in California, agrees. He asks: 鈥淲hat can you
do with such a system that you can鈥檛 do with a modified, conventionally armed
intercontinental missile? Is the price tag really worth it?鈥� And given the
鈥渃ommon delays鈥� with space shuttle launches, Stares wonders why the Pentagon
believes a space bomber will be able to get off the ground any faster.