Nuclear Weapons 245 - New U.S. Legislation May Spark An Arms Race In Space
One big worry about space exploration is that hostile nations will deploy devastating weapons in space. The major international space treaty currently prohibits placing any weapons in orbit or on bodies is space such as asteroids, moons, etc. Recently the U.S. made a small change in the wording of legislation for the military that has big implications for the future deployment of weapons in space.
The U.S. depends on its arsenal of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to attacks from other nations with advanced nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Missile defense systems have usually been considered a potentially destabilizing influence because if a nuclear-armed nation believed that it could block a counter attack from a nuclear-armed enemy, it might to tempted to consider a first strike nuclear action.
The U.S. policy for years has been for a limited homeland missile defense system that would be able to stop an attack from a nation with limited nuclear capability such as North Korea or Iran. The term "limited" is used in legislation governing the U.S. military to explicitly calm concerns by major nuclear powers such as Russia and China that it would ever launch a first strike in the belief that it could thwart their counter attack.
Now, bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress have quietly passed legislation regarding the national missile defense system that removes that word, "limited." There has been virtually no national press coverage of this change and there was no public discussion. There is also a provision in the law that orders the Pentagon to start researching, developing and testing space-based systems for missile defense.
It is estimated that the cost of even a "bare-bones" space-based missile defense system would be at least two hundred billion to install with hundreds of billions of dollars in operating costs after deployment.
Now members of both national parties are beginning to react to this major change in U.S. policy. On the one hand, proponents of a space-based missile defense system say that it is absolutely necessary in today's dangerous world. Opponents of such systems say that the idea that a space-based missile defense system could protect the U.S. from a major nuclear attack is sheer fantasy.
Proponents of a new space-based missile defense system draw inspiration from the Star Wars initiative of the Reagan administration during the 1980s. It was supposed to use space-based lasers and other weapons to render nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete." Thirty billion dollars were spent and no weapons were ever developed and deployed.
The primary Congressman behind the legislation, Trent Franks (R-Ariz), said that taking the word "limited" out of the legislation and beginning work on new space-based weapons put "put the U.S. on a path to better safeguard its security." He went on to say, "I hope that the day will come when we could have solid-state lasers in space that can defeat any missile attack. That day is a long ways off. But fortunately, it’s a little closer, and a little more certain, with the passage of these amendments.”
A retired president of the missile defense system division of Lockheed Corporation said that such systems "defy the laws of physics and is not based on science of any kind. Even if we darken the sky with hundreds or thousands of satellites and interceptors, there’s no way to ensure against a dedicated attack. So it’s an opportunity to waste a prodigious amount of money.” He also referred to the new legislation as "insanity, pure and simple."
A former assistant secretary of Defense who was in charge of the Pentagon office that carried out testing and evaluation of weapons systems said that the idea of a space-based nuclear shield was a "sham".
Opponents are afraid that in addition to being a useless waste of money, our creation and deployment of such a system would give Russia and China an excuse to deploy nuclear weapons in orbit. This legislation is a very serious mistake and should be repealed. The last thing the world needs is a new arms race to put nuclear weapons in space.
Trent Franks:
