February 17, 2004: Air Force Reveals Plans for Array of New Weapons

The US Air Force releases its 2003 Transformation Flight Plan in which it describes an array of new weapons, many offensive, that it intends to develop over the next decade. The planned arsenal would include air-launched missiles designed to destroy low orbiting satellites, ground- and space- based lasers for attacking missiles and satellites, and “hypervelocity rod bundles” (also known as “Rods from God”) that would be launched from space at targets on the ground. [US Department of the Air Force, 11/2003 ; Center for Defense Information, 2/19/2004; Wired News, 2/20/2004; San Francisco Chronicle, 3/15/2004; Popular Mechanics, 6/2004]