Space operations and thinking (merged thread)
This Week at War: Lost in Space
Entry Excerpt:
Can the Pentagon afford to protect its orbital interests?
Here is the latest edition of my column at Foreign Policy:
Topics include:
1) Will diplomacy and soft power be enough to defend space?
2) How many nukes does Pakistan need?
Will diplomacy and soft power be enough to defend space?
The U.S. Department of Defense released its first-ever National Security Space Strategy (NSSS), on Feb. 4. The document "seeks to maintain and enhance the national security benefits" the United States derives from its activities and capabilities in space. This week, Gregory Schulte, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, explained the new policy in an essay for Foreign Policy. Schulte described the benefits the United States receives from a wide variety of surveillance, communications, and navigation satellites. He also noted the increasing competition among a growing number of players who are seeking their own advantageous positions in orbit. Schulte explained some clever diplomatic and soft-power strategies that U.S. officials hope will protect the country's space interests, along with some hedges in case the soft-power strategies fail. However, growing those hedges could get very expensive for the Pentagon.
Of greatest worry to the Pentagon is the vulnerability of its satellites to attack. In 2007, China shot down one of its old weather satellites with a direct-ascent missile, demonstrating its ability to threaten the space systems on which U.S. military forces depend. In addition to missile attack, many commercial and Defense Department satellites are also vulnerable to directed energy (laser) attack and to electronic jamming. U.S. adversaries may view attacks on U.S. satellites as a high-payoff/low-risk strategy. By attacking U.S. satellites, an adversary could hobble U.S. military forces without the usual indications of warfare, at least in the public's perception. For example, without any images of explosions, burning buildings, or wounded civilians, U.S. policymakers might find it difficult to generate political and diplomatic support for a military response.
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STS-135: The Final Mission of the Space Shuttle
MPs warn over nuclear space bombs and solar flares
Quote:
The government must take more seriously the threat of a nuclear weapon being exploded in space by a rogue state, MPs have warned.
The Defence Select Committee said the resulting radiation pulse could disrupt power and water supplies, UK defence and satellite navigation systems.
Its chairman, Tory MP James Arbuthnot, said an attack was "quite likely".
The committee is urging ministers to invest in more "hardened" technology to cope with such an event.
It looked at the threat to the UK's technological infrastructure from "electromagnetic pulse" (EMP) events in space, which could also include the eruption of solar flares.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17117836
Aircraft Carriers in Space
An interview with a real naval analyst on what science fiction gets right and wrong on space warfare: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...riers_in_space
Michael
USAF Space Chief Sees Final Frontier as Battleground
Quote:
Space, once seen as the benign final frontier, has evolved into a crowded potential battleground that the U.S. must defend as conflicts extend beyond Earth, according to the Air Force’s top military space official.
While officials once aspired to treat space as a peaceful refuge from the strife on Earth, it’s now “congested, contested and competitive”-- and “all three of those trends are trending upward,” General John W. “Jay” Raymond, the head of the Air Force Space Command, said in an interview Monday at Bloomberg headquarters in New York.
From jamming and cyber attacks to “kinetic destruction,” there’s a “full range of threats” to U.S. early warning, Global Positioning System and communications satellites, Raymond said. Those threats come from economic and military rivals like China and Russia and include the increasing accumulation of debris orbiting the planet.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-battleground
Most-Relevant pre-existing thread, now moribund.
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ighlight=space
