The chief of the US Space Force has warned that China is putting military capabilities into space at a “mind-boggling” pace, significantly increasing the risk of warfare in orbit.

“The number of different categories of space weapons that [China has] created and … the speed with which they’re doing it is very threatening,” said General Chance Saltzman, head of space operations at the US military’s recently created force tasked with protecting American interests in space.

  • Don Escobar@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    China spends a quarter of what the US does in military and somehow gets 5 times more accomplishments. This is either 1 a lie to get more spending or 2 gross mismanagement by the US

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      China certainly could be lying.

      Half of the US states are purposely bankrupting their education systems to make sure that the 1 percenters are the only ones with any advantage. Even in the States that aren’t actively trying to stamp out education the poor and middle class can’t afford a respectable education.

      China is sitting on a pile of natural resources and doesn’t have any problems with underpaying and working people to death.

      They’re set up to do a lot with very little, they have a lot of people and resources and they’re not afraid to educate enough people to get the job done.

      It’s not just space, they’re getting places with electric cars that we can’t touch.

      It’ll be interesting to see where all this ends up.

    • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      5:1 is less than I’d have guessed on the money. We have a capitalism problem. Contractors dont charge an honest price, they charge every penny they can get away with. MIC is just a big money printing machine for a couple dozen companies.

      That $45 hammer meme isn’t just a meme.

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        We have a southern problem, they know they can bribe the good ol boys for pennies on the dollar and the pork will always flow.

        Cut the spending, send it to states where people learned to read.

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      NASA’s headquarters are in Alabama.

      2 people managed to utterly destroy NASA and everything it stood for:

      1. George Walllace: Incensed that NASA did not enforce the rigid segregation he originally prescribed

      2. Richard Shelby: Who made sure all NASA funding went straight to Alabama and only Alabama, all contractors had to work there, and all private space funding was absolutely forbidden: https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/so-long-richard-shelby-and-thanks-for-all-the-pork/#gsc.tab=0

      If we want to have a space program again, we need to take it out of Alabama, or it’s just a money faucet, the equivalent of giving inbred cavemen an electron microscope, which they then tear apart to beat each other with.