Page 19 - ADT APRIL - MAY 2021 Online Magazine

U.S. and allied space systems are real, serious and growing,” said United Kingdom, which will spend an additional
Gen. John Raymond, commander of U.S. Space Command and £16.5 billion over four years on its armed forces,
U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations, in April after the has set up the Royal Air Force Space Command
anti-satellite missile test. The test in July, Raymond said, offered in Scotland, which will work in tandem with the [ SPACE ]
“further evidence of Russia’s continuing efforts to develop and Ministry of Defence’s Space Directorate.
test space-based systems, and is consistent with the Kremlin’s
published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold U.S. and Counterspace Capabilities
allied space assets at risk.” According to the 2021 annual Global
Counterspace Capabilities report by the
Despite the rapid militarization of space, the outdated 1967 Outer Secure World Foundation, Russia, China and
Space Treaty still remains the basis for international space law. North Korea are making significant progress
While the recent push for rules of behavior is spearheaded by the in their counterspace capabilities. Japan and
U.S., it was Russia and China that initially proposed a treaty to ban India, meanwhile, are investing heavily on their
weapons in space. The “Treaty on Prevention of the Placement of space situational awareness (SSA) capabili-
Weapons in Outer Space and of the Threat or Use of Force Against ties, thus upgrading their ability to track what
Outer Space Objects (PPWT)” was originally proposed in 2008 is moving in various orbits.
and then revised in 2014. Rejecting the treaty as “fundamentally
flawed,” the U.S. said that PPWT does not address terrestrially Kinetic physical weapons, which look to strike
based ASAT systems address, “the most pressing existing threat directly or detonate a warhead near a satellite
to outer space systems” and does not impose restrictions on the or ground station, have the ability to cause irre-
development and stockpiling of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons on versible damage. While the U.S., Russia, China,
the ground. and India have successfully tested direct-as-
cent ASAT weapons, a kinetic physical attack
Major Area of Investment has never been conducted by any country.
It is not just the big players that are in the fray; with space rapidly Non-kinetic physical weapons, such as lasers
becoming a warfighting domain and perceived security threats that temporarily dazzle or permanently blind
mounting in Earth's orbit, more militaries are setting up their own the sensors on satellites, or High-powered
space force or building up their capabilities in the sector. Months microwave (HPM) weapons, are becoming
after the U.S. Space Force was established in December 2019, increasingly in demand. Militaries are also
Japan launched its new space defense unit, the Space Operations investing in electronic counterspace weapons,
Squadron, as part of the Japan Air Self-Defence Force. The squad- which target the electromagnetic spectrum
ron is expected to be fully operational in 2023, with the first satellite through which space systems transmit and
for monitoring the space environment to be launched by 2026. receive data and developing capabilities for
cyberattacks that target data and the systems
The French Air and Space Force (AAE for ‘’armée de l’Air et de that use, transmit, and control the flow of data.
l’Espace’’), which was officially established in September last year,
plans to launch next-generation Syracuse satellites equipped The Russian Space Force, created in 1992 as
with cameras that will be able to identify threats in space, such the world’s first space force, has direct-ascent
as anti-satellite weapons. India, which conducted an anti-satellite and co-orbital ASAT capabilities, as the con-
test in 2019, has established the Defence Space Agency (DSA) as troversial tests in 2020 conclusively proved.
part of its plan to expand its military capabilities in the domain. The Though not officially designated as ASAT weap-
ons, the S-400 and S-500 series surface-to-air
(SAM) missile systems are reportedly capable
of reaching a satellite in low earth orbit (LEO).
According to Russian military sources, the
S-500 is designed to strike objects in space
as well as defend against space-based weap-
ons. Yuri Muravkin, the chief of Russia’s Air and
Space Forces, says that the S-500 is capable
of destroying hypersonic weapons and satel-
lites in near space. The country, which has two
airborne laser systems with ASAT capabilities
in development - the Peresvet laser system and
Sokol-Echelon –is also growing its electronic
counterspace capabilities and is developing
mobile ground-based systems such as the
Tirada-2 and the Bylina-MM, which are mobile
jamming systems for suppression of space
communications of foreign satellites.

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