'저는 그들의 땅을 지키기 위하여 싸웠던 인디안들의 이야기를 기억합니다. 백인들이 그들의 신성한 숲에 도로를 만들기 위하여 나무들을 잘랐습니다. 매일밤 인디안들이 나가서 백인들이 만든 그 길을 해체하면 그 다음 날 백인들이 와서 도로를 다시 짓곤 했습니다. 한동안 그 것이 반복되었습니다. 그러던 어느날, 숲에서 가장 큰 나무가 백인들이 일할 동안 그들 머리 위로 떨어져 말과 마차들을 파괴하고 그들 중 몇몇을 죽였습니다. 그러자 백인들은 떠났고 결코 다시 오지 않았습니다….' (브루스 개그논)





For any updates on the struggle against the Jeju naval base, please go to savejejunow.org and facebook no naval base on Jeju. The facebook provides latest updates.
Showing posts with label Aerospace industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aerospace industry. Show all posts

Monday, September 7, 2009

Text Fwd: DRONING ON


Bruce Gagnon blog on Sept. 2, 2009
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
DRONING ON

Our local newspaper reported yesterday that the Navy has flown an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) into our community for a week-long visit. This is nothing more than a public relations effort to promote the idea that the Brunswick (Maine) Naval Air Station, set for closure in 2011, could be turned into an "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Test Center."

The Times Record article extensively quoted me and another local peace activist and ended with a revealing statement from Maine's commissioner of economic and community development, a guy by the name of John Richardson, who is planning to run for governor in our next statewide election. Just days ago one of our key peace movement leaders in the state reported that she had talked with Mr. Richardson and he said there was no plan to use the closing base as a UAV test center. Politicians do deceive.

In the news article Richardson says, "There are many adaptive uses of UAV's that could be very helpful to the nation and then to the world. I wouldn't cast out of hand UAV research or testing, because of the potential benefits to the nation in the areas of search and rescue, air and water quality, homeland security and even forest fire prevention."

How nice....how sweet. So that is what the US has been doing with our UAV's in Afghanistan and Pakistan....checking on water quality?

In the interview Richardson, a Democrat and former speaker of Maine's House of Representatives, noted that the Global Hawk drone that visited Brunswick is a surveillance craft, "which is different than the drones that drop bombs."

We know that the fledgling aerospace industry in Maine is drooling at the prospects of using the closing Naval Air Station as a drone test center. They have formed a committee to push this project and have developed a relationship with the University of Maine to begin offering an "aerospace industry" class at the institution this fall. In one video of the aerospace committee that I recently saw they were excited about the fact that the Pentagon is moving from expensive fighter aircraft to cheaper UAV's for war fighting. The aerospace committee was predicting that this was a "growth market" and that Maine needs to get in on the ground floor. Someone is going to make some big money they were saying as they rubbed their hands together.

In the article I was quoted talking about the UMASS-Amherst Economics Department study that points out that military spending is capital intensive while every other kind of job creation is labor intensive. Since the base closure is causing much distress about job loss in our community it was important to get that information into the news article. Fortunate for us the newspaper ran the story at the top of the mast on the front page.

It will now be crucial that the peace movement in Maine respond resoundingly to this trial balloon that was floated by the "visit" of this UAV to Brunswick. We are suggesting that Mainers call the town of Brunswick at 725-6659 to lodge your disagreement with the idea of turning the Naval Air Station into a UAV Flight Test Center. Since the state is at some level going to pay for redevelopment of the base this is a legitimate statewide issue.

Because the UAV market is expected to be so huge globally we are beginning to hear from activists in other places who are facing this same issue. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Wales is reporting that a UAV development operation is going to be set up in their country. And interestingly enough, it is being similarly sold as a "civilian" use.

Funny how the development and testing of these killer drones is always just for civil use........

Friday, May 22, 2009

[국문 번역] Text Fwd: [ Samsung Thales] Automating Naval Warfare

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4035339&c=FEA&s=BUS
Automating Naval Warfare:
Samsung Thales Making Name in Combat Systems
By JUNG SUNG-KI
Published: 13 April 2009

미국 국방 뉴스
해군 전쟁을 자동화하기

: 삼성 탈레스, 전투 시스템에 이름을 올리다.
정성기
2009년 4월 13일


SEOUL - As South Korea develops high-tech armed forces suited to network-centric warfare, Samsung Thales Corp. (STC) hopes to play a greater role in that effort - and double its annual sales to 1 trillion won ($723 million).

남한이 넷워크 중심 전쟁에 맞는 고기술 무장력을 개발함에 따라 삼성 탈레스 회사 (STC)는 그 노력에서 더 큰 역할을 맡길 희망한다 -그리고 연간 판매를 2배로 1조원까지 늘리기로. (7억 2천3백만 달러)

As South Korea's leading maker of naval combat systems, the company, based here, offers military electronics products that it has designed or adapted from foreign technologies. STC is now aiming to export products to help revive the country's economy and broaden its own market, said Byun Seung-wan, STC's senior vice president.

남한의 해군 전투 시스템의 주도적 생산업자로 이곳에 기반을 둔 회사는 그것이 고안해 내거나 외국 기술들로부터 채택한 군사적 전자 생산품들을 제공한다. STC의 상임 부회장, 변승완은 STC가 현재 국가의 경제를 재생하고 자신만의 시장을 넓히기 위해 생산품을 수출하려고 목적한다고 말한다.

"Over the past three decades ... our firm has obtained indigenous cutting-edge technologies that can successfully compete in the global market," Byun said.

변은 “지난 30년 동안 … 우리 회사는 자생적으로 지구적 시장에서 성공적으로 완성할 수 있는 첨단 기술들을 획득했다,” 라고 말했다.

STC is a joint venture between South Korea's Samsung industrial group and Thales, the French electronics giant. It dates from 1978, when its predecessor, Samsung Aerospace, entered the defense market.

STC는 남한 삼성 기업과 프랑스 전자 거인인 탈레스 사와의 합작 기업이다. 1978년 STC 의 전신인 삼성 우주 항공이 국방 시장으로 들어갔을 때다.

In 1991, the firm was transferred to Samsung Electronics, the flagship of the Samsung group and one of the world's largest manufacturers of semiconductors and consumer electronics, such as TVs, DVD players and digital cameras.

1991년, 그 회사는 삼성 그룹의 본사인 삼성 전자 회사로 양도되었는데 이는 TV, DVD 플레이어, 디지털 카메라등 반도체와 소비 전자 회사 중 가장 큰 제조 업체의 하나이다.

The defense electronics operation was re-established as STC in 2000 with an investment from Thales. Today, STC has three French executives and is capitalized at 270 billion won; Thales has invested nearly half that amount.

국방 전자 운영은 2000년 탈레스사의 투자로 STC로 재설립되었다. 오늘날, STC에는 3 명의 프랑스 집행부원이 있으며 2,700 억원으로 자본화되었다. 탈레스는 거의 반 가까이의 금액을 투자했다.

The firm has grown more than 10 percent per year since 2000, and over the last three years has grown 12 percent annually, said Kim Youn-ki, a company spokesman. STC's annual sales in the same period have topped 550 billion won, with 2008 sales reaching 580 billion won, he said. The company aims to take that figure to 1 trillion won by 2012.

김연기 회사 대변인은 그 회사가 2000년 이후 매년 10 % 이상 증가했고 지난 3년 동안 연간 12% 증가했다고 말했다. 그는 같은 기간 STC의 연간 판매는 5천 5백억 원으로 1위였고 2008년 판매는 5천 8백억 원 이었다고 말했다. 그 회사는 2012년까지 그 숫자를 1조원으로 도달할 목적을 가질 거라 말한다.

"Samsung Thales is an exemplary model of a South Korean firm that has successfully developed and produced cutting-edge technologies on its own by integrating foreign technologies," said Kim Byung-hwan, an executive director of the Korea Defense Industry Association. "We highly expect the firm to spearhead the country's sales of defense systems and software in overseas markets soon."

한국 국방 산업 연합의 상임 감독인 김병환은, “삼성 탈레스는 외국 기술들을 통합함으로써 그 자신의 것으로 성공적으로 첨단 기술들을 개발하고 생산한 남한의 모범적인 회사이다.”라고 말했다. “우리는 회사가 국방 시스템들과 소프트웨어 해외 시장들에서 곧 국가의 판매율 선두에 서길 바란다.”

STC's potential products for overseas sales include tactical communications and data link equipment, radar systems, electro-optical gear and up-to-date combat systems for ships and ground vehicles, said Byun, the company's senior vice president.

회사의 상임 부회장 변은 STC의 해외 판매 잠재적 생산품들이 전술적 통신들, 데이터 링크 장비들, 레이다 시스템들, 전자-전동 장치들, 그리고 배들과 지상 차량들 등의 최신 전투 시스템들이라 말했다.

"In particular, we've got a solid and proven infrastructure foundation for communications systems-related technologies, and are very confident in their overseas sales," Byun said, referring to the Tactical Information Communication Network (TICN). The network is scheduled to be operational with the South Korean Army by 2012.

변은 전술적 통신 넷워크 (TICN)를 언급하며 “특별히, 우리는 통신 시스템에 관계된 기술들을 위한 튼튼하고 입증된 하부 구조 기초를 획득하였으며 그들의 해외 판매들에 매우 확신이 있다라고 말했다. 그 넷워크는 남한 육군에 의해 2012에는 운영되기로 예정되어 있다.

STC has served as a main developer of TICN, an advanced digital command-and-control and sensor-to-shooter battlefield system. TICN is to replace the Army's SPIDER communications system, co-developed by STC and the state-funded Agency for Defense Development (ADD), over the next four to five years in a 4 trillion won project.

STC는 첨단 디지털 명령-통제 및 연발총 센서 전투 시스템인 TICN의 주요 개발자로 일해왔다. TICN은 STC 및 국가에 의해 재정이 뒷받침되는 국방 개발원(ADD)에 의해 앞으로 4~5년 동안 공동 개발될 육군의 4조원 SPIDER 통신 시스템을 대치할 예정이다.

Data Processing at Sea

바다에서의 데이터 프로세싱

Byun said STC's naval combat systems are drawing keen attention from other nations. Some Southeast Asian countries have shown interest in one developed for the South Korean Navy's 14,000-ton Dokdo Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH 6111) vessel commissioned in 2007, he said.

변은 STC의 해군 전투 시스템들이 다른 나라들로부터 예민한 주의를 끌고 있다 말했다. 몇몇 동남아 국가들은 2007년에 위탁된 남한 해군의 1만 4천 톤 독도 헬기 수송 군함에 흥미를 보였다고 그는 말했다.

Naval combat systems automate target detection, tracking, threat assessment and weapon control. The system guides these functions simultaneously for efficient execution, allowing combat operations to be carried out by fewer crew members.

해군 전투 시스템들은 목표물 간파, 추적, 위협 평가와 무기 통제를 자동화한다. 그 시스템은 효과적인 집행들을 위해 이 기능들을 동시적으로 유도하며 좀 더 적은 수의 선원들로 전투 작전들이 실행되도록 허락한다.

About two years ago, STC completed the five-year Landing Platform Experimental (LPX) combat system, in cooperation with the ADD, based on expertise gathered from its development of combat systems for the South Korean Navy's KDX-I/II destroyers, frigates and patrol ships.

약 2년 전, STC는 ADD와의 협조 아래 한국 해군의 KDX-I/II 구축함, 중형 전함들, 그리고 정찰함들의 전투 시스템 개발을 통한 전문성에 기반하여 5년에 걸친 대형 수송함(LPX) 전투 시스템을 완성시켰다.

In the LPX program, STC was the prime contractor for the integration and development of the command support and the command and fire-control system.

LPX 프로그램에서 STC는 통합과 명령 보조, 명령 화력 통제 시스템을 위한 주요 개발자였다.

STC's latest naval combat system is being installed in the Navy's Patrol Killer, Guided Missile (PKG) class of high-speed vessels. The lead ship was commissioned in December after 19 months of sea trials.

STC의 최근 해군 전투 시스템은 해군의 패트롤 킬러, 유도 미사일 (PKG) 급 초고속 함대들에 설치된다. 지휘선은 19개월 간 바다 시도들을 거친 후 12월에 임명되었다.

The integrated surface-to-air/anti-ship/fire-control system, co-developed with the Agency for Defense Development, involves three-dimensional radar, tracking radar and electro-optical tracking devices. It enables the patrol killer ship to simultaneously detect and track up to 100 aerial and surface targets and to engage multiple targets.

국방 개발원과 공동 개발된 통합된 지대공/대항 선적/ 화력 통제 시스템은 3면 레이더, 추적 레이더와 전자-시각 추적 장치들을 포함한다. 그것은 패트롤 킬러함이 100 개까지의 공중, 지상 목표들을 동시적으로 간파, 추적하고 무수한 명중 목표들과 교전하는 것을 가능하게 한다.

STC's combat system activities date from 1986, when it began producing the WSA-423 fire-control system under license from Britain's BAE Systems, which developed the system.

STC의 전투 시스템들 활동들은 그것이 영국의 BAE 시스템들 허가아래 BAE 시스템들이 개발한WSA-423 화력 통제 시스템을 생산한 1986년으로 거슬러 올라간다.

The South Korean firm produced key hardware for the WSA-423, such as control consoles, mission consoles, and surveillance and tracking radars, and it conducted tests and system integration.

그 남한 회사는 통제 계기반, 임무 계기반, 그리고 정찰 및 추적 레이더등 WSA-423을 위한 핵심 하드웨어들을 생산했으며 실험 및 시스템 통합을 유도했다.

In the early 1990s, STC localized related technologies and further improved them when it participated in the development of naval combat systems for the South Korean Navy's three 3,100-ton KDX-I light destroyers, six 4,500-ton KDX-II destroyers and two 7,600-ton KDX-III Aegis destroyers.

1990년대 초, STC는 관련된 기술들을 지역화했으며 그것이 남한 해군의 3,100톤 KDX-I 경급 구축함들, 6개의 4천 5백톤 KDX-II 구축함들, 그리고 2개의 7천 6백톤 KDX-III 이지스 구축함들등 해군 전투 시스템들 개발에 참여했을 때 그것들을 더욱 개선했다.

Submarine Project

잠수함 프로젝트

STC is now competing with LIG Nex1, another South Korean electronic systems maker, for the 2 trillion won program to supply combat systems for the Navy's upcoming KSS-III submarines, and subsequent export of the systems.

STC는 현재 해군의 미래 KSS-III 잠수함들 그리고 시스템들의 연속적 수출들을 위한 2조원 프로그램 전투 프로그램을 위하여 또다른 남한 전자 시스템 메이커인 LIG 넥스 1과 경쟁한다.

The country's defense procurement agency is scheduled to announce the final bidder this month. Three 3,000-ton submarines will be built beginning in 2018 under the 2.5 trillion won KSS-III project.

국가의 국방 획득청은 이 달 마지막 입찰자를 발표하기로 계획했다. 세 3천 톤 잠수함들이 2.5조원 KSS-III 프로젝트 아래 2018년 지어지길 시작할 것이다.

STC plans soon to unveil a prototype of its advanced submarine combat system, under development for four years, company officials said. The combat system also could be installed in the Navy's new 2,300-ton FFX-I-class frigates, scheduled to begin service in 2011.

STC는 4년간 첨단 잠수함 전투 시스템 원형들을 곧 발표하길 계획한다. 전투 시스템에 2011년 서비스를 시작하기로 예정되어 있는 해군의 새 2300톤 FFX-I 급 중형 전함들에 곧 설치될 수 있다.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Text Fwd: 1) Star Wars! - US Military Calls for More Space Data;

* Text informed in StopNATO *

1) Star Wars! - US Military Calls for More Space Data;

Fri Apr 3, 2009 5:53 am (PDT)
Forward from mart
Please Distribute Widely

1) Star Wars! - US Military Calls for More Space Data;
2) Bonanza For Arms Makers! - Nearly Seven in Ten
Major US Arms Programmes over Budget!
==========================================
Army Technology.Com - "The website for the defence industries"
www.army-technology.com
April 2, 2009

1) US Military Calls for More Space Data

2) Nearly Seven in Ten Major US Arms
Programmes over Budget
------------------------
1) http://www.army-technology.com/news/news52542.html
US Military Calls for More Space Data
By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters.
02 April 2009

US officials, poised to closely monitor North Korea's planned launch of a communications
satellite, this week underlined the need for improved data about what is going on in space.

Military officials said the United States needed to beef up its 'space situational awareness', or
ability to monitor satellites and debris floating around in space, but they gave few details on
any spending plans.

Boeing and other US defence contractors are anxiously awaiting the release of the Obama
administration's fiscal 2010 budget, probably in early May, to see how much funding it will include for space programmes.

"We must find better ways to learn what's in space," Navy Vice Admiral Carl Mauney, deputy
commander of US Strategic Command, told the Space Foundation's National Space Symposium.

He said improving the military's space surveillance capability was one of his top priorities,
and advocates an expansion of the country's current capabilities.

The effort would require more collaboration among government agencies, industry and
foreign countries, he said, as well as international guidelines for satellite operators.

US concerns about the safety of its satellites and the International Space Station escalated
after the February collision of a dead Russian communications satellite and a US commercial
communications satellite owned by Iridium, as well as China's useof a missile to destroy one
of its own defunct satellites in 2007, Mauney said.

He also mentioned the close pass of some space debris by the International Space Station last month and said ensuring the safety of human spaceflight was the command's top priority when tracking possible collisions in space.

The United States already operates surveillance satellites in space, and can use ground-based
equipment and other satellites to track missile launches.

Boeing surveillance satellite

But the growing number of satellites and countries that can launch them, including Iran, has heightened demand for better monitoring of the vast reaches of space.

The Pentagon's budget request last fall included an increase in funds for space programmes, mainly to address the increased surveillance needs, said a senior defence official, who was not authorised to speak on the record.

Top Pentagon officials have already briefed military commanders on the fiscal 2010 budget proposal and should turn over their plans to the White House soon, said the official.

Boeing is working on the space-based surveillance system (SBSS) satellite programme, and said it expects to launch the one satellite already ordered around mid-year.

A launch had been expected in March or April, but the date has slipped while Orbital Sciences
investigates the failed launch of its Taurus XL rocket in February.

Boeing said it is ready to build more satellites for the US military and says the satellite has '
tremendous capacity' to do even more than intended.

The air force initially had plans to order four SBSS satellites, but officials say they are still documenting the military requirements.

The cost of the first SBSS satellite, built by Boeing and its partner Ball Aerospace, including launch costs, ground systems and maintenance through 2011, is around $800m, according to air force officials.

Mauney said US Strategic Command would use its existing sensors to monitor the expected launch of a North Korean communications satellite between 4 and 8 April. Washington and its allies see the plan as a disguised missile test.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Text Fwd: Arms Race in Space

* Text Fwd by Bruce Gagnon on March 19, 2009*

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5971


*The article was also informed in StopNATO.


Arms Race in Space
Bruce K. Gagnon | March 19, 2009

Editor: John Feffer


The new arms race in space is shaping up to be the largest industrial project in Earth's history. To pay for this project, the aerospace industry has been lobbying Washington for a dedicated funding source. Budget allocations for missile defense — Star Wars — are only part of the huge sums of money redirected toward preparations for war in space.

Since World War II, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on Star Wars research and development. When Bill Clinton first came into office in 1993 he ceremoniously announced that Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), at that time funded at $3.5 billion a year, was dead. Then he quietly created the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and moved the $3.5 billion into the new space weapons development organization. George W. Bush left office having changed the name to Missile Defense Agency (MDA) with an annual budget of $10 billion per year.

Not counted in the MDA budget is the money that goes into space technology programs at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Energy, NASA, and others. Conservative numbers indicate that the total military space technology annual budget runs in the neighborhood of $75 billion per year.

From Research to Deployment

The Pentagon maintains that the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s was the "first space war" where it was able to field test new technologies and begin implementing the doctrine of "full spectrum dominance." In the 2003 shock-and-awe invasion of Iraq, 70% of the weapons used in the initial attack were directed to their targets via military space satellites. Today, terrestrial warfare is coordinated from space.

But there's a problem: If the United States can do all of this, so could another nation. Thus the Pentagon has for years been working to create the ability to "deny" others the use of space. According to the Air Force Space Command planning document Strategic Master Plan: FY06 and Beyond, "the ability to gain space superiority (the ability to exploit space while selectively disallowing it to adversaries) is critically important and maintaining space superiority is an essential prerequisite for success in modern warfare...Simply, we must be able to quickly subjugate any space capability any adversary can field while maintaining our own."

This threat to take out the space assets of other nations is leading to a new and dangerous stage in the space arms race. China's 2007 test of a rudimentary anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon was a warning to the United States that it won't allow any one country to be "Master of Space," as the Air Force Space Command logo reads. The United States responded in 2008, using the excuse of a falling satellite, to show the world it had the capability to knock out an object in space. In this case, the Navy fired a "missile defense" system from an Aegis destroyer into space and successfully hit the doomed satellite. This test also was a clear warning to Russia and China that the ship-based Aegis "missile defense" system had offensive capabilities and could be used as part of a growing U.S. first-strike capability.

Space Race in Asia

Today, the United States and its allies Japan and South Korea are deploying Aegis destroyers to encircle China's coastline and put its small nuclear deterrent capability at risk. China also knows that the U.S. Space Command has been annually war-gaming a first-strike attack on its nation. In a computer war game set in the year 2016, the United States launches the attack, using a system now under development called the military space plane. This weapon would have the capability to take off like an airplane, fly through space to the other side of the world in one hour, drop a devastating attack on China, and then return to home base. The Pentagon is selling this space plane to the Congress and the public as the successor to the outdated, and increasingly expensive, space shuttle.

The International Herald Tribune recently reported that Gen. Valentin Popovkin, former chief of Russia's space forces, said his country must develop ASAT weapons technology as well. "We can't sit back and quietly watch others doing that, such work is being conducted in Russia," Popovkin was quoted as saying. Russia already has some "basic, key elements" of such weapons, Popovkin said.

During the tenures of both Clinton and the second Bush, Russia and China introduced to the UN General Assembly a resolution calling for a new treaty to ban weapons in space. The Prevention of an Arms Race in Space (PAROS) would outlaw all weapons in and through space, and close the barn door before the horse gets out. Sadly, the position of the United States has been consistent throughout both Democrat and Republican administrations: There are no weapons in space and thus no need for a new treaty. The United States claims that there is no problem.

The Problem with NASA

NASA was created as a civilian agency with a mission to do peaceful space exploration. But the growing influence of the military industrial complex has rubbed out the line between civilian and military programs.

When George W. Bush appointed former Secretary of the Navy Sean O'Keefe to head NASA in late 2001, the new space agency director announced that all NASA missions in the future would be "dual use." This meant that every NASA space launch would be both military and civilian at the same time. The military would ride the NASA Trojan horse and accelerate space weapons development without the public's knowledge. NASA would expand space nuclear power systems to help create new designs for weapons propulsion. Permanent, nuclear-powered bases on the moon and Mars would give the United States a leg up in the race for control of those planetary bodies. The international competition for resource extraction in space (helium-3 on the moon) is now full on.

NASA's job is to do the research and development, and then be ready to turn everything over to private corporate interests once the technology has been sorted out. The taxpayers will fund the technology investment program. The military will create the space weapons systems to ensure free corporate access to the space highways of the future. The aerospace industry is already making record profits from the ever-escalating cost of space technology systems. Virtually every system now under development is well over budget. Just one illustration is NASA's International Space Station. Originally slated to cost the taxpayers $10 billion, the project has now grown to $100 billion and is not yet finished.

High Ground in Space

A little-known congressional study from1989 called Military Space Forces: The Next 50 Years spells out much of the Pentagon's plan for achieving dominance in space. The Air Force Association published the report in book form, and congressional leaders like Representatives Ike Skelton (D-MO) and John Spratt (D-SC), Senator John Glenn (D-OH) and now-Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) signed the forward.

In the book, congressional staffer John Collins reports: "Military space forces at the bottom of the Earth's so-called gravity well are poorly positioned to accomplish offensive/defensive/deterrent missions, because great energy is needed to overcome gravity during launch. Forces at the top, on a space counterpart of 'high ground,' could initiate action and detect, identify, track, intercept, or otherwise respond more rapidly to attacks."

Collins goes on to propose to Congress that the United States needs bases on the moon, at the top of the "gravity well," and on armed space stations on either side of the lunar surface. He writes, "Nature reserves decisive advantage for L4 and L5, two allegedly stable libration points [on either side of the moon] that theoretically could dominate Earth and moon, because they look down both gravity wells. No other location is equally commanding." Collins then concludes that, "Armed forces might lie in wait at that location to hijack rival shipments on return." Space piracy is born.

Like the Pentagon, the defense industries also have a plan for space. They're working 50-75 years ahead of the rest of us. They understand the enormous costs involved. They are moving to secure a funding source and working to bring "reliable allies" into the program to help pay for Star Wars. They've learned to dress up key aspects of the program as defense, as in "missile defense."

Space is the new military frontier. It's now up to the peace movement to understand the issue and help the public do so as well. Unless this costly and destabilizing new space arms race is stopped, life on Earth will become much more difficult. We must keep space for peace.

Bruce K. Gagnon is the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus. He can be reached at globalnet@mindspring.com.



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