Space Warfare

Rahul Khullar
You all must have heard about the phrase “The sky is the limit”, but this in context to space race that has been refuted by the belligerents of future space warfare. For them, “The sky is not the limit”, we need to venture much above into space for safeguarding our space assets from hostile and antagonist adversaries. In modern times, the nation’s space assets are considered to be the eyes of a nation and are absolutely critical to the contemporary way of war. Like sandcastles, space assets are challenging to build but would be way easier to destroy with weapons like A-SAT (anti-satellite) and ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles). From civilian to military uses, nations depend on their space assets. GPS, cell phones, gas pumps, traffic lights, power grids, guided missiles, surveillance and reconnaissance depend upon satellite-centric networks. During the wars in the Middle East – the USA demonstrated its dependence on satellites for military reconnaissance, communication, target identification, weapon and guidance and command and control of the battlefield. Amid the India-China stand-off, we also got to see how we got the precise data about Chinese buildup from satellite images. So from this, you can gauge how contested, congested and competitive domain space is. After land, air, and sea, space would be the fourth contested front in the near future. In today’s piece, we will be taking up the issue of space militarisation, weaponisation and the way ahead.
The Genesis
During the Cold War arena, the two superpowers, viz. the Soviet Union and the United States of America spent a colossal amount of money developing military technologies. The drive to place assets in the earth’s Orbit stimulated space research and started the space race, which subsequently led to space militarisation. In 1957, the USSR made the historic launch of its first artificial satellite, SPUTNIK-1, which led to the commencement of space-age. This step of the USSR infuriated the USA and led to what is infamously known as the “Sputnik Crisis” which consequently led to the commencement of space race and the creation of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). And by the end of the 1960s, both superpowers regularly deployed satellites and came at loggerheads to establish space supremacy. Both the USA and the Soviet Union began to develop anti-satellite weapons to handicap or destroy each other’s space assets.
Militarising The Space
Militarisation of outer space refers to the use of space assets simultaneously with ground, sea and air-based military operations. This also includes developing assets to be based in space with ground infrastructure for military use such as early warning, communications, Remote sensing. The first military use of outer space was the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The second was the defensive system designed to stop them. Till now, there has been no foolproof defence mechanism to stall an incoming ICBM. This makes it very lethal. Known developers of this technology having operational ICBMs are Russia, the USA, China, France, India, United Kingdom and North Korea. The reason for it not getting stalled lies in its ability to move at a very high speed and release multiple deceptive decoys to baffle the enemy radar. After almost 60 years of research, the decoy issues remain unresolved, and it is a known fact that the ground-based and ship-based defence system of nation does not offer a complete solution to the problem of multiple decoys. Without a well-knit constellation of satellites, it is impossible to have a robust ground defence because space assets are responsible for alerting the ground-based defence infrastructure of any potential incoming threats and it also helps to guide weapons towards their intended targets, so militarisation of space in modern times is indispensable keeping in view the defence of the nation. Sensing this exigency for space defence, countries after land, water and air are now having “space military exercises”, one such exercise was conducted by France in march this year and the exercise was codenamed “AsterX”.This was the first of its kind exercise in the entire Europe. The exercise was part of France’s ambition to become the world’s third-largest space power after China and the USA. India too had conducted its first-ever simulated space warfare exercise, “IndSpaceEx” in July 2019 to counter emerging threats to its space assets from all its adversaries in general and China in particular.
Weaponising The Space
This is an advanced stage of the militarisation of space. It refers to the placement of physical weapons in orbit having catastrophic capacity. This is when space itself becomes the battlefield for adversaries. Ground-based systems designed or used for space-based attacks also constitute space weapons; this means that virtually all the anti-satellite weapons at present constitute space weaponization, though they are not technically part of the weaponization of outer space since they are not placed in orbit. Recently in July 2020, Russia went a step ahead and fired a projectile at one of its satellites from its in-orbit satellite in space, as alleged by the UK and the USA. Russia recently proposed withdrawing itself from the International Space Station (ISS) by 2025 and decided to launch its Space Station by 2030. It intends to give impetus to space weaponization and gear up for future possibilities of Space Warfare. Presently the big space powers like the USA, Russia and China dominate the earth’s orbit, with these three countries having 68% of the world’s operational satellites. As these three countries rely on the space-based assets the most so as a corollary to this, these three nations naturally desire to establish military supremacy in outer space out of a very basic apprehension, i.e. to preserve their satellites in space against other anti-satellite weapons and to safeguard the homeland’s defence. Not to anybody’s surprise here also the USA is the world leader in developing space-based weapon systems. Some of its declared projects for space weaponization include:
* Strategic defence initiative. (Star Wars programme)
* Space-based lasers. (SBLS)
* Space-based missile interceptors.
* Electromagnetic rail guns
* Evolutionary air and space global laser engagement. (EAGLE)
* Space-based Infra-red (SBIR)
* Space tracking and surveillance system. (STSS)
* Anti-satellite weapons. (A-SAT)
* High altitude nuclear detonations.
* Global strike programme.
* Common aero vehicles. (CAV)
* Rods from god.
And in the recent past, under the Trump administration, a new branch of the USA armed forces was made to handle space infrastructure and increase interoperability among the USA tri-services concerning space affairs. The name of the branch is SPACE FORCE. Space force has been sanctioned $15 billion for its work. This is the level of craving for Space domination via its militarisation and weaponization.
Space Weaponisation’s Ramification
The arms race in space put at risk the entire range of commercial satellites and those involved in scientific explorations. The issue of space debris is a matter of concern for the international community in general and the USA, China, and Russia, in particular, which operates more than 65% of the world’s satellite network and are heavily dependent on them for civilian use and homeland’s defence. Space debris can be created either by intentional radio frequency interference (Soft kill), i.e. By jamming the enemy radar by electronic warfare to disrupt the normal functioning without resorting to the actual destruction of the satellite, creating long-lived space debris. The second way is by using kinetic energy weapons (Hard Kill), i.e., smashing the target with the sheer force of its kinetic energy and not using explosive warheads. In 2019 under Mission Shakti, India targeted one of its defunct satellites (suspected Microsat-R) using this kinetic kill technology which attracted criticism from NASA over space debris concerns. Space debris becomes very lethal for nations’ space assets. Due to the very high speed in low orbit, about 10 km/sec, particles less than one-tenth of a millimetre in diameter can damage satellites and spacecraft. International Space Station (ISS). A multinational space Laboratory, remains at risk of colliding with such space debris. In fact, in 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite test with the same kinetic kill technology at an altitude of 865 km. ISS had to do an evasive manoeuver to save itself from the debris created by the Chinese mission. This test received severe backlash from the international community.
International Safeguards
The overwhelming majority of the international community and United Nations member states were concerned that weaponisation of outer space would lead to space turmoil and jeopardise the efficiency of many nations’ ground-based defence infrastructure and a chain of things operated on a satellite centric network. Just for space’s sustainability, a multilateral treaty was conceptualised by the United Nations in 1966. The treaty was named “Treaty On Principles Governing the Activities Of States In The Exploration And Use Of Outer Space”, aka OUTER SPACE TREATY, which came into force on 10th October 1967. Presently, it has 111 countries as its members. However, this treaty has become obsolete now as the ban on weapons in space was limited to nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, giving states enough room to carry space warfare with conventional weapons. This treaty needs to be revisited from the contemporary and future perspective to provide a foolproof safeguard against treacherous fourth front space warfare.
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