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30 September 2005 |
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http://www.janes.com/regional_news/americas/... |
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In August 2004 the US Air Force issued doctrine that laid out its aims for dominating space in time of conflict. The goal is to maintain the tremendous military advantages that the US and its allies and coalition partners enjoy from using satellites, the service said. The document includes passages that outline the air force's intent to use the means necessary to prevent an adversary from using satellites for purposes like communications relay, intelligence gathering and navigation and timing functions in time of war. "There are potential adversaries out there that have excellent on-orbit capabilities in terms of satellites," said air force Lieutenant General C Robert Kehler, deputy commander of US Strategic Command. Further, he said, "today you can have some space capabilities with a credit card and the Internet", potentially giving terrorist groups the ability to leverage satellite-derived information, even if to a limited extent, to strike at US interests. Air force and US administration officials insist that these measures, which the former call offensive counterspace activities, are necessary to protect the US and its friends and not synonymous with stationing weapons in orbit or destroying satellites. Instead, the service speaks of using terrestrial-based systems to cause "temporary and reversible effects" to disable an adversary's space assets. They would inflict no lasting damage to spacecraft and create no debris in orbit. Conversely, critics contend that the doctrine and the fledgling offensive counterspace mission represent the intellectual underpinning of a major shift in US thinking that, whether intentionally or not, could lead to the global community crossing the threshold of combat in space. 263 of 3,014 words [End of non-subscriber extract.]
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