America’s Future tied to Space Capabilities–Shuttle gathers dust in Museum
Posted on December 13, 2011 by Bob
The Military Use of Space
May 14, 1999 – © Bryan Johnson
Space is the high seas of the future. Those nations that exploit the potential benefits of this ultimate strategic high ground for civil as well as military purposes will be the dominate powers of the 21st century. Today. The U.S. has a commanding lead in space technology and military space capabilities. However, there are signs that foreign powers are either on the verge of challenging America’s lead or are determined to be a future competitor.
The recent crisis in Kosovo, for example, has illustrated like no other time in recent history, that Europe is near totally dependent on the U.S. for space borne intelligence and reconnaissance. While this may be good for America, many Europeans see it differently. In fact, not long after the Kosovo crisis began did the European leaders announce that their dependence on the U.S. for space-borne activities would no longer be tolerated. Indeed, the Europeans have embarked on an ambitious agenda to challenge the U.S. use of space early in the 21 century.
Potentially more threatening to U.S. interests is the Chinese space program, which among its many long term goals includes: putting permanent bases on the moon; designing advanced anti-satellite systems that can be employed in space and on the ground; and establishing permanently manned stations in earth orbit.
Congress can help ensure America’s continued dominance of space, like it has helped the U.S. achieve continued dominance of today’s seas. Congress should establish a series of findings or stand-alone measures that outline America’s goals for space dominance. Specifically, these include:
1) Space is a place. Space is a geographic location like air, land, and sea. As such America’s military capabilities must include the ability to control the use of space and defend its military and civil assets from foreign attack.
2) A forward presence in space it vital, even during times of peace. Military strategists long have maintained that those nations most successful at controlling the seas are the same nations that tend most to succeed politically and economically. Space soon is becoming the seas of the future. That means, the U.S. must be free to navigate in space, have and protect space lanes of communication, and monitor all vessels that travel through space.
3) Space must be dominated during wartime. While a forward presence is necessary during peacetime, dominating space during wartime is essential. That means the U.S. must be prepared to protect U.S. access to space while denying its enemies’ access to space. It also means that the U.S. must be capable of exploiting all vital space regions like preferred orbits and missile lanes.
The copyright of the article The Military Use of Space in Political Economy is owned by Bryan Johnson. Permission to republish The Military Use of Space in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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