{"id":17629,"date":"2020-11-06T19:57:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T11:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/pentagon-worries-that-satellite-attacks-could-spark-mutually-assured-destruction\/"},"modified":"2020-11-06T19:57:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T11:57:36","slug":"pentagon-worries-that-satellite-attacks-could-spark-mutually-assured-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/pentagon-worries-that-satellite-attacks-could-spark-mutually-assured-destruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon worries that satellite attacks could spark \u2018mutually assured destruction\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_591274\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-591274\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-591274\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/201106-satellites-630x396.jpg\" alt=\"Satellite constellation\" width=\"630\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/201106-satellites-630x396.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/201106-satellites-768x483.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/201106-satellites.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-591274\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Satellite constellations are becoming increasingly important for military communications. (DARPA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the years ahead, the long-running nightmare of the nuclear Cold War \u2014 mutually assured destruction \u2014 could return in a new context on the final frontier, a Pentagon adviser said today at a Seattle-based space policy conference.<\/p>\n<p>Brad Townsend, a space strategy and policy adviser to the leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, raised the alarm about anti-satellite weapons, or ASATs, during a virtual symposium sponsored by the University of Washington\u2019s Space Policy and Research Center.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that China and Russia are already experimenting with methods to disable other nations\u2019 satellites in the event of a future conflict. But in the course of destroying an enemy satellite, attackers could set off a catastrophic chain reaction of out-of-control orbital debris.<\/p>\n<p>Such a phenomenon, sometimes referred to as the Kessler syndrome, has fed into the plotlines for movies such as \u201cGravity\u201d and novels such as \u201cSevenEves.\u201d But Townsend warned that the threat is more than just a science-fiction possibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf nations start arming with ASATs as a way to deter other nations from attacking their orbital assets, they risk creating a new form of mutually assured destruction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Townsend said the prospect of setting off a Kessler syndrome should have caused the world\u2019s space powers to back away from the technology. \u201cBut as India\u2019s 2019 test demonstrated, it hasn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>So what is to be done? One step would be to create an international system for sharing information about orbiting satellites, in order to head off unintended collisions. Another would be to encourage the development of space systems that could move satellites to orbital graveyards once they go out of operation \u2014 systems like Northrop Grumman\u2019s MEV-1 satellite tug.<\/p>\n<p>But to head off an intentional satellite attack, Townsend said the world\u2019s nations would have to agree to ban the use of anti-satellite weapons, just as they\u2019ve banned the use of biological weapons. \u201cThe time is right for de-escalation efforts before we have that future event,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"US and UK report Russia used an anti-satellite weapon in space\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/daFVvhW3eGU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In international talks about space weapons, the United States favors an approach known as transparency and confidence-building measures, or TCBM. China and Russia, meanwhile, have their own proposal for a treaty on the prevention of placement of weapons in outer space, known as PPWT. Each approach has run into opposition from the other side.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Stubbs, an expert in space law at the University of Adelaide in Australia, said there\u2019s \u201cconsiderable pessimism about the prospects of multilateral rulemaking for space at the moment.\u201d He said the most likely scenario for resolving the issue involves a series of bilateral and multilateral agreements. NASA is taking such an approach for the Artemis Accords, a set of agreements that are expected to govern future moon exploration.<\/p>\n<p>The space weapons issue illustrates how quickly the space frontier is becoming \u201ca contested domain,\u201d said Lt. Gen. John Shaw, who is the commander of the Combined Force Space Component Command as well as the commander of the U.S. Space Force\u2019s Space Operations Command.<\/p>\n<p>When the Pentagon began building satellite systems for command and control, \u201cwe built them as if we were in a benign domain,\u201d Shaw said. But potential adversaries were quick to take note of the U.S. military\u2019s growing reliance on space capabilities \u2014 which led to the Trump administration\u2019s creation of the Space Force as a separate military branch last year.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"callout clearfix\"><strong>More from the SPARC symposium:<\/strong> Blue Origin fleshes out plan for 2023 cargo delivery to the moon<\/h4>\n<p>Would space policy change if Joe Biden becomes president next year, as expected based on the results of this week\u2019s election? Neither Shaw nor Townsend addressed that question \u2014 but Saadia Pekkanen, co-director of the Space Policy and Research Center, said Biden was \u201clikely to stay the course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you are imagining that there might be a radical shift in space policy, I don\u2019t quite see that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>During today\u2019s keynote session, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., noted that Congress still has to approve a significant piece of legislation pertaining to space policy: the NASA Authorization Act of 2019. \u201cI can\u2019t promise you that it\u2019s going to get done in a lame-duck session of Congress,\u201d she said, \u201cbut if it doesn\u2019t, I will guarantee you it will be done in the very early part of 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell, who\u2019s the ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said the authorization bill would smooth the way for NASA to boost its support for landing systems capable of putting astronauts on the moon\u2019s surface. That could include the landing system that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is developing along with industry partners such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.<\/p>\n<p>The senator noted that Blue Origin, which is based in Kent, Wash., has become a prominent player in Washington state\u2019s space industry, which accounts for $1.8 billion of economic activity annually. Other players include SpaceX, which is building its Starlink satellites at its facility in Redmond, Wash.; and Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s Redmond operation, which is building rocket thrusters for future NASA missions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising that all of those efforts have led recently to our state being called \u2018the Silicon Valley of Space,&#8217;\u201d Cantwell said.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to future space exploration, NASA\u2019s Artemis program to put astronauts on the moon looms largest on the horizon. The Trump administration has pressed NASA to execute the program\u2019s first crewed landing by 2024, but Cantwell said that deadline might slip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re very excited about Artemis in general. \u2026 There\u2019s not always consensus about when and what time frame we should have to meet this Artemis goal,\u201d Cantwell said. Hitting the 2024 deadline \u201cwould require an enormous amount of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wendy Whitman Cobb, an associate professor of strategy and security studies at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, said the Artemis program was likely to continue even if the White House changes hands, as expected, but with a different timetable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Biden administration might be a little bit better at letting that go a little bit. \u2026 If anything, I think we might see a little bit more emphasis on the commercial capabilities and commercialization of space on the part of NASA,\u201d she said. \u201cThat could be, just because there\u2019s that natural sort of flow over from Vice President Biden\u2019s experience with the Obama administration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Satellite constellations are becoming increasingly important for military communications. (DARPA Illustration) In the years ahead, the long-running nightmare of the nuclear Cold War \u2014 mutually assured destruction \u2014 could return in a new context on the final frontier, a Pentagon adviser said today at a Seattle-based space policy conference. Brad Townsend, a space strategy and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[439,190,20,442,332,4368],"class_list":["post-17629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-military","tag-nasa","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-space-force","tag-university-of-washington"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}