by John Lasker
This Military Space Place or MSP – like most US space weapon plans – is spreading anxiety across the globe. The Pentagon has an unknown number of “dual purpose” space planes in the works. They might be space bombers, but no one is completely sure. They’re so secret, no one can say what they’ll be used for or how far developed they are. A space vehicle that can repair, deploy and even attack satellites, or insert reconnaissance drones back into the atmosphere – all within hours of orders – is also desired. As one NASA official put it, the space plane/bomber will “be the key to opening and conquering the space frontier.” The fear of an American space bomber, say experts, has one significant and severe backlash. Other nations will develop their own space bombers or space weapons to counter any US MSP.
“There are scores of Chinese articles over the last two years that mention a U.S. space bomber,” said Gregory Kulacki, Chinese specialist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, from their office in Berkeley, California. “The Global Times and even television stations like Phoenix TV out of Hong Kong have a track record of hyping military technology and are unreliable, but the space bomber stories also appear in more reputable sources.”
Space weapons experts agree a US MSP is 10 to 20 years away from being operational. But a small number of MSP prototypes are in some type of wind tunnel. “We know this because it’s in the budget,” said Michael Katz-Hyman, a research associate for the Washington-based think-tank Henry L. Stimson Center, citing the research and development area of the Defense Department’s $400-billion, 2007 budget.
Early in the Bush administration and especially after 9/11, the Pentagon was making overtures that it desperately needed an ultimate quick-strike weapon when US forces, aircraft carriers, even drones, are far from the target. Soon enough, the Pentagon was salivating over the prospects of acquiring a bomber that could take out an enemy within two hours of getting eyes-on-the- target intelligence. Katz-Hyman says the space bomber’s research is driven by the Pentagon’s desire to carry out this “rapid global strike,” hit any target on Earth within two hours of orders being issued. Currently, long-range bomber runs using stealth bombers or B-52s take 12 to 24 hours to execute, depending on which U.S. base is used and where the target is located. It also depends on whether certain nations will allow us to fly in their airspace and what type of air defense the target is protected by.
The Pentagon has spoken little about exactly what targets could be obliterated by a space bomber, but the writing is on the cave’s wall: Osama bin Laden. If he were to ever be compromised, the US military would no doubt only have a two- hour window or less to send bin Laden to hell. The Pentagon also has noted that weapons-of-mass destruction, such as a North Korean nuclear warhead preparing to launch, might also need to be eliminated within under 120 minutes.
Like the space shuttle, the unmanned X-37 needs a rocket boost, or the assistance of another aircraft, to achieve orbit – and this requires a half-day of preparation before a mission. Katz-Hyman says the Air Force and DARPA hope to someday build a so-called “single-stage-to-orbit” space plane that will simply take off from a runway and break-out of the atmosphere into space. This type of craft is also known as a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). But in the case of the X-37, it might already be in a low-Earth-orbit someday, awaiting orders. In 2011, it is scheduled to be rocketed into space and placed into orbit for an entire year.
The X-37 was born from a unique, stand-alone secretive Air Force program. A program that has many descendants; actually a long-line of classified aircraft designed and built with the military in mind. The X-37’s heritage – as its name shows – comes from the “X” series of planes. And pinpointing how many planes are in the X-series is a challenge many investigative tech-journalists and scientists have been trying to figure out since the beginning of the Cold Water.
One X-series brother of the X-37 is the X-43. Just 12-feet long, the X-43 is a scramjet or Supersonic Combustion Ramjet; its engine is designed to take oxygen from the atmosphere instead of from a huge and cumbersome liquid oxygen tank on board, like all rockets must do. In November of 2004, the X-43 broke the world record for a jet-powered aircraft by reaching Mach 9.6, or about 7,000 mph. NASA says the scramjet makes the “craft become smaller, lighter and faster and researchers predict scramjet speeds could reach 15 times the speed of sound. An 18-hour trip to Tokyo from New York City becomes a 2-hour flight.” The scramjet may also someday put satellites in orbit and don’t forget the military application: scramjets also might be able to deliver cruise missiles at record speed.
One of the X-37’s most classified descendant’s was the spy-plane the Aurora, which unlike the X-37, is manned. Whether the program has been terminated, or now under a new name, is unknown because the Air Force refuses to talk about it. But conspiracy theorists believe the “black aircraft” – researched under the Pentagon’s black or secret budget – has secretly been streaking through the skies since the 1970s. The Pentagon let it slip the classified Aurora existed when in 1985 the name “Aurora” appeared, accidentally, below a budget request for the SR-71 Blackbird and the U2. These manned super spy jets could fly from Los Angeles to Washington in just over an hour, at an altitude of 85,000 feet or 16 miles up. Because of the speed, these plane’s outer surfaces could reach 900-degrees Fahrenheit. Another factor requiring the pilots to wear astronaut suits pumped with pure oxygen.
The 1985 budget request for the Aurora, the apparent heir to the SR-71 and the U2, stated it was an “air-breathing” plane, meaning it has inlets that take in air so it mixes with fuel. Billions have been spent on the Aurora, claim experts, an aircraft that theorists stress must be hypersonic (fly between Mach 5 to Mach 20) due to all the secrecy. More exact speculation says the Aurora’s speed could be one-mile per second, or just over Mach 5 (3,600 mph roughly). Giving an armed Aurora the ability to reach a target potentially within minutes. Theorists say the prime contractor must be Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works (now the Lockheed Advanced Development Company), one of the US military’s most secretive civilian-run research efforts.
As for Aurora witnesses, they are few and far between. In 1989, while working out on the North Sea, engineer Chris Gibson said he saw a strange triangular-shaped craft accompanied by a pair of F-111 bombers. Indeed, the Aurora has been glimpsed several times over the North Pole. Satellite imagery has also captured a single, high-altitude contrail stretching from Area 51 to deep into the Atlantic. And the Aurora has most likely been mistaken for extraterrestrial craft – when ripping through the atmosphere at Mach 5, it causes the plane's edges to glow red considering they’re 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. To handle the heat, the plane’s outer surface is believed to be titanium.
Perhaps the most recent sighting can be viewed on YouTube. Skeptics claim the Aurora is shaped like an isosceles triangle. The YouTube video is actually a set of stills depicting a large black craft shaped like an arrowhead with fins sprouting from the corners of its wings. The pictures were taken in August of 2008 near Area 51. The photographer, who wished to remain anonymous because he was clandestinely out of sight in restricted land controlled by the US military, said the plane – a literal phantom aircraft – made no sound.
Closely related to the Aurora is the FALCON program, or the Falcon Application and Launch from Continental United States. Katz-Hyman said the Air Force and DARPA are desperate to build a space place that will simply take-off from a runway and enter space, which would make it a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle. This is the FALCON’s ultimate objective – and thus is probably the main candidate to become the US military’s future space bomber. The Air Force and DARPA say the FALCON is a hypersonic cruise vehicle that will reach over Mach 12 speed, enter space with a 12,000 pound payload, be able to bomb any target within 90 minutes, and then re-enter the atmosphere and go home. Katz-Hyman said the FALCON annual unclassified budget is around $100 million.
The FALCON program, so far, has given birth to the CAV, or Common Aero Vehicle, an unmanned, unpowered (flap controlled
), and unremarkable capsule-looking “hypersonic glide vehicle.” A cone-shaped craft, the CAV (X-41) can carry 1,000 pounds of munitions. Such a payload might include cruise missiles or the odd looking Small Diameter Bombs. And what the US military calls “hypersonic deep earth penetrators” to take out Al Qaeda troops hiding in caves. These are just like the non-explosive “Rods from Gods” that have been proposed for Battlesats (see chapter 3). The Air Force also wants the CAV to carry drones, so it can drop them into the atmosphere and insert right over the target. The CAV might also release killer satellites while in orbit and turn them on enemy satellites.
But the Falcon Project and the CAV has competition. Katz-Hyman said US Strategic Command is trying to see whether a Trident submarine loaded with a re-engineered ICBM with a conventional warhead could deliver a Rapid Global Strike without igniting a nuclear exchange. But radar systems cannot distinguish a Trident launch and whether its ICBM is tipped with a nuclear payload. Thus using the Trident could set off the extinction of the human race. If US Strategic Command can convince Congress they can do the mission much cheaper and more effective, MSP funding could be significantly slashed, said Katz-Hyman.
“While FALCON and CAV could be revolutionary in how the US projects force, research and development is currently moving at a slow pace and Congress has put key restrictions on it when it comes to using CAV as a weapon. The space plane will either be revolutionary or a big waste of money,” said Katz- Hyman. “In the meantime R & D is currently moving at a slow pace.”
What’s more, in 2005, Congress, as budget stipulation, forced the Air Force and DARPA to “exclude” all weaponization activities from CAV related research.
TECHNOIR IMAGES
This now-famous drawing of the Arizona V first appeared in USA Today. The V would literally become a life-changing event for many witnesses.
Strange lights over Lake Erie is a mystery locals have been talking about for centuries. But are recent sightings UFOs or a hoax? Skeptics say these lights seen here near Cleveland are actually incoming planes, in succession, preparing to land at a nearby airport.
The USS Lake Erie, a guided missile cruiser based at Pearl Harbor, is quite possibly the first space battleship ever. That's because it's equipped with the Aegis missile system, which can take out targets in space, as it did in 2008, when it shot down a malfunctioning satellite.
The Starfire Optical Range at Kirtland Air Force Base has lasers that can "paint" satellites. Will these same lasers someday be boosted to a weapons-grade level so to shoot satellites down?
The "Kill Vehicle" for the US military's THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), a mobile unit under the US Missile Defense Agency that can take out targets in space. The Kill Vehicle is roughly 6 meters long contains no explosives, and destroys simply with kinetic energy. Thus it is a huge spike that can travel at 15,000 miles-per-hour.
This artist rendering of a "Rods from Gods" Battlesat shows how the US military may some day rain death down to Earth literally from the heavens.
This rendering by the US military shows a Battlesat with lasers that apparently are shooting at targets on Earth's surface.
This rendering of a future Battlesat shows a capability of firing a weapons-grade laser, but at what exactly, is unknown. The US military is still far from deploying such a satellite. Nevertheless, the dream is still there; but for what reason: missile defense or something more insidious – space weapons? This illustration by the US military adds to such confusion.
The US Air Force's AirBorne Laser may shoot a beam someday that takes out ICBMs and satellites. The laser is generated in the back of the plane and shot out the mirrored ball-like lens that’s pictured here at the front of the plane’s nose cone.
Pictured here piggy backed on a massive rocket ready for takeoff, is the Soviet Union's Battlesat named Polyus. Shaped like a rocket, the USSR called it a laser space battlestation. While never deployed, it was equipped with a laser canon, space mines, and Barium, which it could release in a cloud in order to blind other satellites.
This future Moon base depicted here may be harvesting the fuel for the Earth’s future, such as Helium-3 for nuclear fusion.
This artist rendering from the University of Wisconsin predicts a future when mining for Helium-3 on the Moon could be necessary to fuel and power life on Earth.
Is it a stretch to suggest US or Chinese troops may someday use images like these to find the best LZ (landing zone) possible? If the US loses the current race back to the Moon to China, and thus losing the race for the next super fuel, is it far-fetched to suggest someday the US will re-take the Moon by force?
This is Apollo astronaut Harris Schmitt. Will his desire for Helium-3 turn the Moon into a combat zone?
The X-37 looks like a miniature Space Shuttle. But when it's loaded with space mines, CAV missiles, and UAVs, its mission is far different – as a Space Bomber.
The US Air Force's Aurora is a classified super jet that can travel at MACH 5. The plane is so secret, only a handful of civilian witnesses exist. During the last ten years, it has been glimpsed flying high and fast over the North Atlantic.
This is an artist rendering of a US military hypersonic cruise vehicle. It appears to be flying on the edge of space, perhaps waiting on orders to strike.
The Buffalo MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) truck may have helped turn the tide in Iraq.
This is the Buffalo’s smaller brother, the Cougar. Like its brother, it too is resistant to most IEDs.
This advertisement for the Buffalo shows-off its IED and mine eating prowess.
"Kids in the Congo were being sent down into mines so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living room," said British politician Oona King, who was a member of Parliament from 1997-2005.
The US military's Tactical High Energy Laser is capable of shooting down cruise missiles, rockets, UAVs and mortars.
This US Air Force C-130 was gutted and armed with a High Energy Laser.
The US Navy's MIRACL, or Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser, was first deployed in 1980. It apparently can shoot down cruise missiles. Thirty years later, has it advanced to a point where it can melt Battleships into the sea? Just right of the laser’s turret is a list of its apparent victims – a cruise missile, five UAVs and a star, which might mean it has taken out a target in space. The MIRACL was reported to have disabled a US Air Force satellite in 1997.
This Humvee is armed with a ZUES HEL (High Energy Laser). Several ZUES lasers were deployed to Iraq at the onset of the 2003 invasion. Two Italian journalists believe a number of Iraqi civilians perished after being targeted by a ZUES.
These photo stills show a US military High Energy Laser shooting down a drone aircraft.
This is what US Army Capt. Lawrence Coyne saw looking out the window of his Super Huey on the night of October 19th, 1973. (Illustration provided by CUFOS)
This artist rendering depicts what an Ohio family also saw on the night of October 19th, 1973. The family would corroborate perhaps the most convincing UFO case of all time: The Coyne Incident.(Illustration provided by CUFOS)
Calvin Parker of Pascagoula, Mississippi, claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrials during the UFO wave of October, 1973. He said the creatures had one leg and crab-like claws for hands. CUFOS, manned by former members of Project Blue Book, determined that Parker and friend’s story was likely true.
What is this thing? It's the US military's Sea-based X-band Radar, probably the most powerful radar on Earth. The US military claims it can tell the difference between a real ICBM and a fake ICBM, even if they're flying next to each other in space. A massive radar dish is hidden under the white globe.
Jack Thompson once referred to certain SONY video games as the second-coming of Pearl Harbor.
This mirror of an Al Qaeda web site illustrates how the war against terror is also fought online. And like its physical brother, waged with bullets and IEDs, this aspect of the conflict has no end i
n sight either.
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is a great humanitarian, but did he earn his fortune by putting Americans out of work and replacing them with cheap labor from India?
This unassuming guy is Mike Connell, a true computer hacker who worked for the Republican Party. He died in a plane crash in 2008, just before Christmas.
Chapter 8
The Night All “Hel” Broke Out
Did the US military unleash a secret laser against Iraqi civilians?
Early during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as American forces tore through enemy lines and closed in on Baghdad, did the US military fire one of its secret lasers at Iraqi civilians? It is a question that lingers in the minds of a few prominent Iraqi civilians and two respected Italian journalists. They believe a number of Iraqi civilians drove their vehicles too close to a check point manned by US troops near Baghdad’s main airport and other locations, and that’s when all "HEL" broke out.