The United States is the world’s greatest economic and military power. Perhaps nothing demonstrates the extent of that dominance today better than the country’s preeminent role in space. The United States operates by far the most capable and costly network of satellites in the world.
Its extensive access to space provides significant economic benefits. It also gives the US military a critical edge over potential adversaries. The combination of US dominance in, and dependence on, space assets has led to both growing concerns about the vulnerability of those assets and calls for the United States to exploit further its existing advantages in space capabilities.
While space has been militarized for many years, it has not, at least as far as can be determined from unclassified sources, been weaponized. In other words, satellites have been used to provide intelligence, targeting and other support to terrestrial-based forces and weapons. However, to date, no country appears to have actually stationed weapons in space. Some analysts believe that the weaponization of space is inevitable and that the United States can and should move rapidly to acquire and field a range of space-based weapons. Others argue that the United States has more to lose than any other country if space is weaponized and that taking steps in this direction would lead to the worst of both worlds—yielding little or nothing in terms of military advantage, and sparking or accelerating an arms race in space that the United States should, instead, be seeking to avert or, at least, delay as long as possible.
Space-based weapons could, in theory, be used to carry out at least four different missions. Specifically, they could be used to:
- defend against ballistic missile strikes;
- attack terrestrial-based (i.e., surface-based and airborne) targets;
- destroy or disable enemy satellites; and
- protect US satellites, by intercepting enemy anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons.