Message posted by Scot M Tway on April 22, 2012 at 21:12:32 PST:

By Bill Gertz INSIDE THE RING
The head of the Air Force Space Command recently made cryptic comments about some aspects of one of the military’s most cutting edge and secret weapons, the X-37 space plane. Air ForceGen. William L. Shelton, who heads the Air Force’s space operations, said during a March 26 breakfast meeting with defense writers that the X-37, currently on orbit, is performing its mission. “It is doing very well in orbit, and we don’t have an exact re-entry date for it. But it’s had a successful mission, and we are very happy with the performance,” he said. Asked what the space plane was doing well, the four-star general declined to specify. [Imagine that!]
Gen. Shelton said there are no plans at the present to increase the number of spacecraft from the current two, and he also defended the secrecy of the program’s budget. “If you reveal budgets, you reveal sometimes the capabilities, the amount of technology that’s inserted into a program,” he said. “I think in this case, it’s just a good strategic national security decision. Like we do other things of that ilk. Keep that budget to ourselves.”
Pressed for details on the secret craft, Gen. Shelton said only that the system is “game-changing,” often a reference to strategic capabilities that can make a difference between winning and losing in a conflict. A defense official said the X-37 is a key element of the Pentagon’s new Air Sea Battle Concept to closely link Air Force and Navy capabilities for defeating China’s advanced military systems such as anti-satellite weapons, anti-ship ballistic missiles and cyberwarfare capabilities. In a future conflict with China, the X-37 is slated to play a key role in knocking out Chinese space sensors that would provide key targeting data for the DF-21D anti-ship missile. Pentagon officials, however, refuse to say publicly that the X-37 is part of future space warfare systems and insist it is a test bed for research.
Chinese military writers have said the X-37 is part of secret U.S. plans for space warfare against China.

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