Prompt Global Strike

A few weeks ago, the US Air Force successfully launched the semi-secret X37B into orbit. The article is full of typical liberal hand-wringing, whining and sniveling, as one would expect from the Times. But this bit at the end of the article, unrelated to the X37B launch, is very interesting:

With all the focus on the launch of the secret X37B, another space launch by a Minotaur IV rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California received less attention.

It was carrying the prototype of a new weapon that can hit any target around the world in less than an hour.

The Prompt Global Strike is designed as the conventional weapon of the future. It could hit Osama bin Laden’s cave, an Iranian nuclear site or a North Korean missile with a huge conventional warhead.

A quick Google search for "Prompt Global Strike" reveals lots of hubbub over the project. It's not so much a single system as it is a weapons concept program. By far the most interesting technology to come out of the program is what amounts to an orbital cruise missile. Either boosted into orbit by a land-based rocket and left there against future need, as referenced in the article above, or launched from a ballistic missile submarine, the hypersonic cruise missile can take out anything, anywhere, anytime -- in less than a hour from "go".

Oooh. I'm gettin' all tingly.