orbital weapons platforms

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters:

"'Wired has an article about the U.S. Air Force's plans to put military weapons in outer space. Plans include firing hypervelocity rods from space to targets on the ground, space-based lasers and large mirrors to reflect the beams at targets on the ground, and a space-based radio frequency energy weapon to destroy or disable foreign satellites. The Air Force's PDF can be found here.'"

Is it just me, or do other people have visions of hackers breaking into the command and control center and taking control of these orbital platforms? In the first Command and Conquer game, the Nod victory was the hijacking of the orbital ion cannon which was then used to blast several locations on earth.

Considering that most other nations barely have a space program, let a lone a space combat branch, it would put the US in an insane iron fist around the whole globe. We can drop depleted uranium on people with impunity. Evaporate lakes at will with orbital lasers. And whatever big bidget scifi movie can tell us.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.