US sparks off a race to weaponise space

A government that declares a weapon without describing it invites rivals to assume the worst. A satellite built to inspect or refuel another can also disable it

Washington has now said, more plainly than ever, that it has weapons in orbit, describing them only as “space control” weapons for defending American forces and saying no more.

Satellites guide missiles, time bank transactions, route ships and aeroplanes, and track the monsoon, and military planners expect them to be early targets in any war between major powers. More than a dozen countries are building the means to jam, dazzle, seize or destroy them. (AFP)

Satellites guide missiles, time bank transactions, route ships and aeroplanes, and track the monsoon, and military planners expect them to be early targets in any war between major powers. More than a dozen countries are building the means to jam, dazzle, seize or destroy them. Washington’s candour has merit, since a weapon deters only when rivals know it exists.

A government that declares a weapon without describing it, however, invites rivals to assume the worst. A satellite built to inspect or refuel another can also disable it.

A bigger risk still is when one is destroyed outright — that will leave debris that endangers every spacecraft on a crossing path, including the attacker’s. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits only nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

UN talks on banning weapons in space have fallen behind what governments are already deploying. They can still agree on rules of conduct: no tests or attacks that create debris, advance notice of close approaches, and channels for talking in a crisis. India relies on satellites for weather forecasting and navigation, and destroyed one of its own with a missile in 2019, which gives it both the stake and the standing to press for such rules. Orbit must not become the space for another arms race.