What technical achievement is need to shot down a satellite,and also shot down a missile in orbit?

Question

Recently report china shot down a satellet by missile from ground.Whole world is concern and upset US and Japan most,Why?As I know Us already can shot down a satellet (from air),why need to spend billion dollors to develop defensive system to shot down a income missile?

Answer 1

You are asking 3 questions here.

1. What technical achievement is necessarey to shoot down a satellite.

First, it's important to understand satellite's are much easier targets to shoot down than missiles. Not to say that shooting down a satellite is easy ( only US, Russia, and now China ) has done it. It's just that shooting down an incoming missle is so much much harder, no country has a reliable system in place to do it.

The biggest barrier to shooting down a satellite is the fact that you have to launch something into space to do it. Not a lot of countries have that capability (a dozen maybe?). Once you get your 'satellite killer' into space it needs complex guidance systems with very precise control to make sure it can be steered to hit the intended satellite.

2. What technical achievement is needed to shoot down a missle?

You actually said 'missile in orbit' but of course you probably know missles don't orbit the earth, they are shot directly at other counries within the confines of the earth's atmosphere.

Missiles are much more difficult to shoot down because you must first have complex systems in place to detect them. Satellites are key to this detection system, as well as other ground based radar systems. So you see if a country can shoot down a satellite, then they can take out key elements necessary in shooting down your nuclear missles.

Once you develop your missle detection system, now you have to figure out what to do when you actually detect one. If one is incoming, you have a VERY short amount of time to shoot it down (depending on how far you are from that country) before it hits you with devastating nuclear payload. So you must develop a missle that can be launched in a short amount of time that is precise enough to guide itself and impact another missle that is traveling at hundreds of miles per hour.

You also have to assume it's not just going to be one missle you have to shoot down. Countries like China and Russia have thousands of missles they can shoot at us at any one time. So whatever you build needs to be able to counteract this


3. Why spend billions of dollars to develop a defensive system to shoot down an incoming missile?

Because it's an arms escalation. I build a bomb, you build a bigger bomb. I build a missle defense system, you build a way to take out my missle defense system.

If you don't have a system to counteract another country, then you are at a disadvantage when trying to wield power against that country.

I don't necessarily agree with this line of thinking, but thats the reasoning behind it.

Answer 2

all u need is to be able to track effectively an object in the space, then you need an air to space missile, u don't have to deploy a huge rocket to shot down a satellite, the f - 16 can carry one of this missiles it tracks the satellite and then shots the missile.
the first gulf war showed us the need to develop a "missile blocker" system, imagine how would ended Israel if all the Scud missiles will successfully hit ground

Answer 3

Because China wants to be able to shoot down satellites too. Then they can be in the group of big important countries in the world. They want respect and they will do what ever it takes to get it.

Answer 4

do you opt on a conflict? per chance it grow to be a missile attempt, per chance it grow to be only a rocket. u . s . a . fires rockets and missiles for all time, do you imagine different international places ought to commence capturing yours down? North Korea has not bombed everybody that i understand of, too undesirable u . s . a . can not say a similar element.

Answer 5

The U.S has many anti-intercontinental missile laser defense systems in place.