Is a Space Warfare arms race really coming?

In one of my previous posts "Who needs nuclear weapons anymore?" I was emphasizing on another, much more assymentric, still dangerous alternative, EMP weapons. I came across to a recent Boston.com article titled "Pentagon eyeing weapons in space" that's gives a relevant overview of the current state of the U.S's ambitions, an excerpt :



"The Pentagon is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to test weapons in space, marking the biggest step toward creating a space battlefield since President Reagan's long-defunct ''star wars" project during the Cold War, according to federal budget documents."



as well as some of the projects the request is going to be spent on :



-"One $207 million project by the Missile Defense Agency features experiments on micro-satellites, including using one as a target for missiles. This experiment ''is particularly troublesome," according to the joint report, ''as it would be a de-facto antisatellite test." "
-"A project description says the Air Force would test a variety of powerful laser beams ''for applications including antisatellite weapons."

-"The agency also has asked Congress for $220 million for ''Multiple Kill Vehicles," a program that experts say could be proposed as a space-based missile interceptor."

-"Meanwhile, the Air Force wants $33 million for the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, envisioned as space vehicle capable of delivering a military payload anywhere on earth within an hour, according to an official project description."



Big government contractors(the majority of and past revenues secured bygovernment contracts) such as Northrop Grumman and Lockhead Martin are more than eager to get hold of implementing these projects and launching them into space.



I highly recommend you to read Space Warfare Foolosophy: Should the United States be the First Country to Weaponize Space? if you want to go through a very good point of view -- it's all about politics and who feels like getting superior. An arms race is slowly emerging, and that's the distrurbing part!



As a matter of fact, SFAM from the CyberpunkReview.com has recently featured a review of one of the best X-files episodes "Kill Switch" where the main characters try to escape an AI playing with leftover Star Wars military orbital lasers .



More resources can also be found at :

Orbital Weaponry
Space Based Weapons
Space Warfare Weapons
SpaceWar.com
Militarization and Weaponization of Space
Space and Electronifc Warfare (ELINT) Lexicon
Gyre's Space Warfare section
Directed Energy Warfare -- Space Age Weapons
Secret Orbiter System Revealed
Military Transformation Uplink: March 2006
Anti-Satellite Weapons
Military Space Programs
Space Weapons For Earth Wars
The Revolution in War (227 pages)
A Political Strategy for Antisatellite Weaponry
Space Weapons - Crossing the U.S Rubicon
Preventing the Weaponization of Space
Space Weapons: The Urgent Debate
Satellite Killers and Space Dominance
The Advent of Space Weapons
US Space Command Vision for 2020
China's Space Capabilities and the Strategic Logic of Anti-Satellite Weapons

U.S. Air Force Plans for Future War in Space - 2004
Space Warfare in Perspective - 1982



Technorati tags :
EMP, Nuclear, War, Space, Space Warfare, Space Weapons, Security