The New High Ground: Systems and Weapons of Space Age War

By Thomas H. Karas

The New High Ground: Systems and Weapons of Space Age War This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671470256
• ISBN13: 9780671470258
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Space Warfare of the Reagan Era

?The New High Ground takes us to the new arena of military operations--space. Thomas Karas introduces us to scores of the most powerful and influential men in the space establishment-the military, NASA, the aerospace industry. They think the time has come to treat space as a medium for the military, instead of merely as an area for research and development. Already fulfilling these plans are dozens of space satellites that provide the Pentagon with instant communication to ships, planes, and bases around the globe; detailed pictures in visible and infrared light of the most secret Soviet military installations; navigation satellites that tell a pilot the exact altitude and location of his aircraft to within fifty feet. Karas shows us the mechanical, political, ec0nomic, and military inner workings of the newest technology. The Reagan Administration has called for increased investment in military space especially-a greater share than the conventional military budget. With the building of the shuttle, NASA has devoted a quarter of its budget to military use. Soon there may be such things as communications antennae small enough to fit into a briefcase, which will revolutionize the spy networks; powerful space laser weapons able to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles; "killer satellites" that already, in testing, can reach speeds of more than 30,500 mph, swoop in on enemy satellites, and destroy them with pinpoint accuracy. Karas warns us that there is an urgent need for national debate about space policy before we are inexorably committed to a new arms race in space. We will not make the earth safe from warfare by moving combat into the new high grOlmd. Finally, Karas shows that the resources we have shifted to space war have steered us away from the civil benefits of exploration and exploitation of space.