The United States federal government should pursue a defensive space control strategy that emphasizes satellite hardening, replacement, redundancy and situational awareness
Space Race Inevitable - Motivations
Download 1.07 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- [ ] Space arms race inevitable – China and India will lead the way – military advantages are too tempting
- [ ] Multiple economic and military pressures make conflict in space inevitable
- [ ] Space militarization is inevitable – land operations make evolution into space operations inevitable Ramey 2000 - instructor, The Air Force Judge Advocate General School
- [ ] The US is testing ASATs in response to Chinese Tests Mackey, 2009 - Air Force Institute of Technology [
Space Race Inevitable - Motivations[ ] Competition in Space inevitable- Nationalism and Conflicting interests Denmark 2010 - Fellow with the Center for a New American Security [By Abraham M. and Dr. James Mulvenon CNAS, Jan, Contested Commons: The Future of American Power in a Multipolar World http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS%20Contested %20Commons%20Capstone_0.pdf Accessed Jun 21] Despite an emerging consensus that international power dynamics are changing, there is little agreement as to what the future world will look like. The Carnegie Endowment’s Robert Kagan argues that “nationalism in all its forms is back … and so is international competition for space power, influence, honor, and status.” Regardless of the specific form one believes the future world will take, it is clear that the international system of the new millennium is evolving toward, or returning to, a more complex environment. 46 As new powers rise, they may develop interests and perspectives on the global commons that differ from those of the United States. [ ] Space arms race inevitable – China and India will lead the way – military advantages are too tempting Pinkerton 2009 - Fellow at the New America Foundation [James Pinkerton. January 14, 2009. Beam Us Up, Barack!. New America Foundation. Fox News.http://newamerica.net/publications/articles/2009/beam _us_barack_9943. Accessed June 23, 2011] For their part, the Chinese seem to have absorbed these geostrategic lessons. They are determined now to be big players in space, as a matter of national grand strategy, independent of economic cycles. In 2003, the People’s Republic of China powered its first man into space, becoming only the third country to do so. And then, more ominously, in 2007, China shot down one of their own weather satellites, just to prove that they had robust satellite-killing capacity. Thus the US and all the other space powers are on notice: In any possible war, the Chinese have the capacity to “blind” our satellites. And now they plan to put a man on the moon in the next decade. “The moon landing is an extremely challenging and sophisticated task,” declared Wang Zhaoyao, a spokesman for China’s space program, in September, “and it is also a strategically important technological field.” India, the other emerging Asian superpower, is paying close attention to its rival across the Himalayas. Back in June, The Washington Times ran this thought-provoking headline: “China, India hasten arms race in space/U.S. dominance challenged.” According to the Times report, India, possessor of an extensive civilian satellite program, means to keep up with emerging space threats from China, by any means necessary. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Deepak Kapoor said that his country must “optimize space applications for military purposes,” adding, “the Chinese space program is expanding at an exponentially rapid pace in both offensive and defensive content.” In other words, India, like every other country, must compete–because the dangerous competition is there, like it or not. India and China have fought wars in the past; they obviously see “milspace” as another potential theater of operations. And of course, Japan, Russia, Brazil, and the European Union all have their own space programs. Space exploration, despite all the bonhomie about scientific and economic benefit for the common good, has always been driven by strategic competition. Beyond mere macho “bragging rights” about being first, countries have understood that controlling the high ground, or the high frontier, is a vital military imperative. [ ] Multiple economic and military pressures make conflict in space inevitable Hyten 2001 Director, Space Programs, Office of the Ass Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, [4 January 01. Air & Space Power Journal . A Sea of Peace or a Theater of War: Dealing with the Inevitable Conflict in Space. Lt Col John E. Hyten. http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/Hyten.html Accessed June 21, 2011.] The pressures on space are enormous—from both an economic and a military perspective. Looked at in isolation, each of these pressures is severe enough to create conflict. In combination, they create the risk that future space conflicts could result in war—either on earth, in space, or both. On the economic front, conflict has already occurred due to crowding in geostationary (GEO) orbits and through saturation of the available radio spectrum.12 On the military front, conflict has been avoided because the United States, in recent years, has retained an effective monopoly on the use of space during conflict. Conflicts involving the commercial use of space will continue to increase as crowding increases. There are limited unoccupied slots at GEO and limited spectrum remaining to be allocated. On the military side, one cannot imagine the United States allowing an enemy to either threaten U.S. space capabilities or use space systems to their advantage, putting Americans at risk. Conflict involving space systems could be a significant part of any future military conflict involving the United States. Space is such a diverse environment that predicting how conflict will occur is a challenge of infinite possibilities. What is clear, however, is that future conflict will likely be derived from these two interests so heavily dependent on space—the commercial sector and the military. [ ] Space militarization is inevitable – land operations make evolution into space operations inevitable Ramey 2000 - instructor, The Air Force Judge Advocate General School [International and Operations Law Division,. The Air Force Law Review. : Armed Conflict on the Final Frontier: The Law of War in Space. NAME: Major Robert A. Ramey.Lexis Accessed June 21, 2011 ] [*122] Given the numerous previous uses of space assets for combat support, the evolution from passive, defensive support systems to active, offensive, weaponized systems seems only a matter of time. Professor Spires provides the following instructive review of space assets used in combat: As early as the Vietnam conflict, weather and communications satellites furnished useful data and imagery to commanders in Southeast Asia and linked them with Washington, D.C. More recently, satellite communications had proven important in the British Falkland Islands campaign and in Urgent Fury, the Grenada invasion of 1983. In 1986, during Operation Eldorado Canyon, space systems provided a vital communications link and supplied important mission planning data to aircrews that bombed targets in Libya. In 1988, Operation Earnest Will witnessed the first use of GPS test satellites to support ships and helicopters during mine sweeping operations in the Persian Gulf. During Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989, DSCS satellites provided long-haul communications links and DMSP supplied important weather data. These operations, however, involved only portions of the military space community for a relatively brief period of time, and the contribution of space systems was not widely understood or appreciated. Desert Storm, by contrast, involved the full arsenal of military space systems. Nearly sixty military and civilian satellites influenced the course of the war. 528 To these military uses can be added the extensive use of space assets in the 1999 Operation Allied Force campaign in Yugoslavia. 529 What this review [*123] demonstrates is that the military use of space for combat continues toward more robust, integrated systems. The increasing reliance on space assets strongly suggests that the space environment will eventually become a distinct theater of military operations. 530 [ ] The US is testing ASATs in response to Chinese Tests Mackey, 2009 - Air Force Institute of Technology [Accessed on 6-21-11 Fall Birmingham- Southern College;; Deputy group commander at Eglin AFB, Florida -Air and Space Power Journal “US and Chinese Anti-satellite Activities” proquest] US Destruction of USA-193 In January 2008, the United States began public planning for a similar ASAT test that would target a failing National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite (USA-1 93). (See table 2 for a comparison of this satellite and the Feng Yun-lC.) Conducted under the auspices of the Missile Defense Agency, the test used readily available systems, modified in rapid fashion to provide a seaborne satellite-intercept capability. The more open nature of American society, the preannounced intentions of this ASAT test, and the media focus made a good bit of information available; however, many details remain classified. The Air Force launched NRO satellite USA-1 93 on 14 December 2008 from Vandenberg AFB, California. The 21st in the NRO series and most likely carrying very-high-resolution photo-imaging systems, the satellite failed after one day in a deteriorating polar orbit ranging between 257 and 242 kilometers. Because the satellite retained a significant amount of hydrazine fuel- a highly reactive and toxic chemical, exposure to which can be extremely hazardous- that could possibly survive reentry, the US government announced that it would shoot down the 2,450-kilogram USA-1 93, destroying the hydrazine fuel tank in the process, before it could plummet to Earth and possibly cause fatalities.20 Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 1.07 Mb. Share with your friends:
|