Trust is low and likely to dip even further.
To pull off such feats, Washington will need the support of as many of its space-faring allies as it can get.įinally, unless China, Russia, and America’s other space competitors throw in their towels, short-circuiting military competitions in space via diplomacy will be challenging, at best. Instead of death blasters, the preferred response to rendezvous spacecraft that attempt to de-fuel, disable, or reposition our key satellites will be to gently push such approaching spacecraft a safe distance away with “bodyguard” satellites. In some cases, these systems may be owned and operated by private, commercial firms.Įven the initial military response to these threats will likely lack drama. Unfortunately, these same systems can be flipped to conduct anti-satellite missions, including damaging, de-fueling, and repositioning targeted satellites. Instead, many of the ground- and space-based threats Washington and its space allies face will be ostensibly “peaceful.” Laser satellite trackers, commercial space surveillance systems, space debris-removing satellites, and refueling spacecraft all will have and conduct legitimate civilian missions. Instead, the headaches ahead are relatively slow-moving rendezvous robot satellites, ground-based electronic jammers, and cyber weapons and lasers designed to disable satellites without producing space debris.Ĭlear-cut, black-and-white-hat space combat is unlikely.
If one taps the nation’s leading space experts, as my center did, and games out the most likely near and mid-term threats the United States and its space-faring allies face, space blasters aren’t the worry.
What’s expected is that one party will vanquish the other or (better) that they might come to their senses and strike some sort of Westphalian space compact.Įven the studied imagination of reality, though, reaches somewhat different conclusions. What’s presumed is space combat waged between massive, opposed forces armed with dedicated military spacecraft equipped with an arsenal of space guns, zipping to points in space with light-warp acceleration. Mention military space operations and most people, even sophisticates in Washington, conjure up images of Star Wars: Laser-powered firearms, star fighters and battleships, and cosmic fireball explosions that propel space rubble to infinity and beyond.
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