| rdfs:comment | - Kinetic bombardment is by no means a new concept. The earliest proposals by science fiction writers called for the crashing of nearby satellites, asteroids or meteoroids, which would have produced devastating, if unrefined, results - thankfully, then, it was the military industrial complex that took the idea and ran with it, producing the much more refined Project THOR concept. Originated by Jerry Pournelle and developed by Boeing in the 1950's, the idea was that a solid tungsten "telephone pole" be kept in a geosynchronous orbit above the Earth, using thrust vectoring rockets to maintain a stable position. When needed, this projectile would enter the Earth's atmosphere, using stabilising fins and its thrust vectoring systemt for course correction and stability, striking a target with infi
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| abstract | - Kinetic bombardment is by no means a new concept. The earliest proposals by science fiction writers called for the crashing of nearby satellites, asteroids or meteoroids, which would have produced devastating, if unrefined, results - thankfully, then, it was the military industrial complex that took the idea and ran with it, producing the much more refined Project THOR concept. Originated by Jerry Pournelle and developed by Boeing in the 1950's, the idea was that a solid tungsten "telephone pole" be kept in a geosynchronous orbit above the Earth, using thrust vectoring rockets to maintain a stable position. When needed, this projectile would enter the Earth's atmosphere, using stabilising fins and its thrust vectoring systemt for course correction and stability, striking a target with infinitely more accuracy than a meteorite. Such an impact would be vary in equivalency - the smaller projectiles would be equivalent to only a 500 lb "conventional" bomb, and larger projectiles would have proportionately larger yeilds, but a fraction of the cost. Even more attractive to the defence industry, the projectile would be extremely difficult to detect, possessing an high closing velocity and small radar cross section. Better still, the infra-red launch signature occurs in orbit, with no fixed position, and is only a fraction of, for example, a ballistic missile. Smaller projectiles could be kept in "carrier" satellites in significant numbers, allowing multiple strikes within a rapid frame of time, resupplied by rocket or shuttle launch. The only apparent drawback would be that the weapon's sensors would become blind during reentry, obscured by the plasma sheath, so a mobile target would be difficult to hit, especially if it deviates from its expected course mid-entry. Naturally, there was considerable interest in developing a weapon of this type. Founded in 2089, recent newcomer to the defence market Sierra Space Systems had made their name with the development of efficient VASIMR thrusters for manned and unmanned space exploration probes, first used in the colonisation of Mars. For their next success, CEO Janus Adelig turned to a property with decidedly more militaristic applications - Project THOR. Their first deployment, the KKV-X1, was launched in 2102 via the Japanese Tanegashima Space Center and placed in a geosynchronous orbit - the first test fire occurred at its Alice Springs testing centre, with a tungsten-carbide projectile impacting successfully on its target, a nearby abandoned town purchased by Sierra for the demonstration. The timing and success were crucial - the KKV-X1 was essentially just the projectile itself, a single-use disposable weapon that, if wasted now, would badly damage Sierra's reputation. Observed by representatives of various national military organisations, especially the Peoples Republic of China and the United States, Sierra secured contracts from a dozen nations for KKV-1A satellites. Investigations were conducted on whether it could be converted into a material delivery system, but these would be abandoned in 2089. Later models, such as the KKV-2 and KKV-7C, would be reusable multiple-launch platforms for the kinetic kill vehicles, housing up to two dozen projectiles, each able to be manoeuvred independently to strike multiple targets. During the Caucasus Wars, Russia would deploy its KKV satellites in anger for the first time, but it would not be the only user - smaller nations such as Georgia, while lacking launch sites for their own satellites, had purchased satellites already orbiting, and retaliated in kind. When the nations reformed into the Federated States of the Caucasus for a united front against Russia, it possessed two dozen of the satellites, a significant threat to Russian territories in the region. United Nations intervention in 2112 stopped the majority of the damage, but the effectiveness of the KKV had certainly been proven - it is always telling that the most effective weapon systems do their job so well that they fall into disuse, killing becoming too easy, and the KKV satellites would remain orbiting but inactive for another fifty years.
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