sudhir007
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New Delhi. The militarisation of outer space the so-called last frontier and ultimate high ground happened many decades ago when military satellites began to be deployed for surveillance, communications and navigation. Will the weaponisation of space be an inevitable consequence?
n January 2008, China demonstrated its ability to physically destroy a satellite in space by firing a missile at it. Even though the satellite that had been shot down was an ageing satellite, the act sent a chilling message to the world. Later, the United States proved similar capability.
A headline in the Janes Defence Weekly a few years ago had stated: USAF Eyes Relay Mirrors to Extend Range of Lasers. In bold type-face the first paragraph of the news item datelined Washington D.C. had proclaimed ominously: Highpowered laser weapons are expected to make their operational debut later this decade, according to military planners who say these weapons will revolutionise future battles by giving US forces the ability to hit targets with lethal beams of energy delivered at extreme speed and over great distances. The deployment of weapons systems will turn outer space into a potential battlefield a platform from which to seek strategic superiority on the ground. Space is fast acquiring the status of the ultimate high ground, a term much revered by military planners and leaders.
Which way is the West led by United States (US) headed? Is it Ronald Reagans Star Wars programme all over again? Or, is it, as some analysts have dubbed it, the son of Star Wars? The plans now underway to utilise high-flying airborne lasers on board modified Boeing 747 aircraft to generate multi-megawatt laser beams that are then reflected by a relay of 5-metre diameter mirrors arrayed in outer space to shoot down nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles during their boost phase, will lead inexorably to the weaponisation of space.
India is also now a major space power with substantial civilian and military stakes in space and must decide whether it wishes to support and join the current race to weaponise space or oppose it.
US Race for Space
According to the Washington Post, in January 2001 the US Air Force Space Command completed a major war-game set in space where attack satellites and lasers fought computer hackers and space planes in a simulated struggle reflecting the Pentagons growing belief that the key battles of the 21st century may be fought in space. The exercise called Schriever 2001 showed that the ability to project force to and from space can be a powerful deterrent to conflict. The US Army is not far behind and is looking to exploit emerging space technology to deliver effects-based fires for manoeuvre on the future battlefield. How exactly they intend to achieve such effects is hazy at present.
The next logical step would inevitably be to develop capabilities to destroy similar systems of the adversary in space including military satellites. US Senator Tom Harkin had said after a 1997 laser test to help the US military understand the vulnerabilities of military satellites that the test was both unnecessary and provocative. Quite obviously since then, the US military has gradually come to accept space as a future battlefield and a new theatre of operations. The world will soon hear about killer satellites armed with lasers, space mines, electronic jamming systems and logic bombs and viruses that can cripple computer-based command, control, communications and intelligence systems.
The aim will be to destroy satellites or neutralise them temporarily through non-lethal means. These could include lasers to blind imaging satellites and radio-signal jammers, and even chemical means to disable a spacecraft in flight. The fight will undoubtedly also extend to the destruction of enemy ground control facilities, both from the air and from space. Also on the drawing boards is a strategic space bomber that will blast off like a ballistic missile and drop precision-guided munitions from the stratospheric height of up to 100 km on targets deep inside enemy territory. It will be capable of reaching any target anywhere in the world within 30 minutes of takeoff from the continental United States.
The US Department of Defense issued a Directive on Space Policy (July 9, 1999), which declared space as a medium like the land, sea and air within which military activities shall be conducted. The Year 2000 Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organisation, chaired by Defence Secretary Rumsfeld before he was nominated to head the Pentagon, had warned of a Pearl Harbour in space. In its report, the Committee had said it would be in the national interest to develop and deploy the means to deter and defend against hostile acts directed at US space assets and against the use of space hostile to US interests.
The US Air Force, eager to rename itself an aerospace force, launched a new study in 2001 to identify research areas to focus on space control and space access with a view to conducting effective aerospace operations.
Present US efforts focus primarily on enabling the armed forces to control space to leverage the military potential of this vital medium to protect troops and territories and project power abroad. However, it must be noted that US policy planners and space industry officials are now calling for an overarching strategic plan that would coordinate civil, military and commercial space efforts. The practical realisation of these diabolical capabilities will be extremely destabilising for world peace. Their possession by the US will naturally compel Russia and China and maybe half a dozen other countries to follow suit leading to a second race for space, after the first one was sparked by the launch of the USSRs Sputnik in the 1950s.
for more information :-
..:: India Strategic ::.. Space: Weaponisation of Space
