Space warfare doctrine

Abstract

The phrase “space weapons” is almost guaranteed to cause an unfavorable reaction in the US, whose population generally views space as the purview of NASA. The truth is that space weapons capability is the 21st-century way of war. Such a capability promises those nations who control space the capacity to use force to influence events around the world in a timely, effective, and sustainable manner. No event better illustrated this power than Operation Desert Storm, the world’s first true space war, which took place in 1991.

“Space assets provided exhaustive information about the enemy’s status and measures he was taking. By thoroughly knowing the status of Iraqi troops, the MNF [Multinational Force] command paralyzed their operations and stunned them with the unexpectedness of steps being taken. In the future the role of space in war evidently will rise sharply, since the capabilities of strategic means of warfare are realized to the maximum extent in the aerospace sphere. It is presumed that in the not too distant future unavoidable strikes by precision weapons and weapons based on new physical principles can be delivered from space against any targets regardless of their degree of hardening. Thus, a country not having the capability to counter space weapons may turn out to be doomed.” Major General I.N. Vorobyev