No country is sending weapons into orbit now, but ‘militarization of space is only matter of time’

Published time: 30 Jun, 2019 14:26

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FILE PHOTO: A US Air Force satellite mission lifts off at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station © REUTERS/Mike Brown

NATO’s first space strategy sees Earth’s spheres of orbit as a theater of war – just like land or sea. A military expert has told RT that, while no one sends weapons beyond the skies, the militarization of space is inevitable.

The military bloc’s new space policy, which has just been unveiled, calls for using outer space the same way as land, sea, air or cyberspace. Not many details are known about the strategy, but a major question arises here – is the world’s biggest military alliance giving itself free rein to deploy weapons into orbit, just like the leeway it permits itself when it comes to dozens of non-NATO countries?

Mikhail Khodarenok, a Russian military expert and retired air defense colonel, believes that it will take some time until NATO creates a viable space force. No country will deploy weapons in space in the short term, because “anti-satellite devices are currently under development in all of the major countries,” he told RT.

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However, it doesn’t mean that the militarization of Earth’s spheres of orbit won’t ultimately come true. “The US is likely to become pioneers in this area,” the expert suggested, adding that China, Russia and India will follow.

Militarization of space is inevitable in the foreseeable future.

As for NATO, it “doesn’t play any independent role” in outer space, mainly because designing and sending weapons into outer space is an American prerogative. Thus, the alliance is simply following the US’ suit in publishing its policy.

The Pentagon, for its part, has no plans whatsoever to have offensive weapons systems in orbit, as the US military are currently busy working on “a multi-layered missile early warning system in space.”

They do realize that their 123 satellites could be hijacked, jammed or weaponized, which would make its entire space force increasingly vulnerable. “Quite a lot” depends on the US satellite fleet, including the GPS services, the use of precision weapons and imagery intelligence, Khodarenok pointed out.

Decapitating the satellite force will create unimaginable chaos in all walks of life in the US.

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“A country which will first obtain interceptor satellites ... will pose the biggest threat to the Pentagon,” he stated, saying that China is the likeliest candidate to assume this role.
Leading world powers have rolled out a host of cutting-edge weapons designed to be used from, or through, space. India, for instance, has joined the ‘super-league’ this year, having shot down a satellite. Russia, in turn, has made enormous efforst to produce a hypersonic glider which travels across lower orbit levels before hitting its target.

The US in turn created the Space Command last year, which later evolved into the Space Force. In the meantime, Washington continued to blame Russia and China for “weaponizing” space, triggering sharp rebukes from both Moscow and Beijing.