Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 221, 2024

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

In an April 18, 2022 speech at Vandenburg Space Force Base, a key space launch facility for the U.S. Department of Defense, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that following large debris field creating anti-satellite (ASAT) tests by China (Jan. 11, 2007) and Russia (Nov. 15, 2021), that the United States would commit unilaterally not test ASAT systems in space.

Harris stated, “Simply put, these tests are dangerous, and we will not conduct them…We are the first nation to make such a commitment.”

By June 2023 the Biden Administration had convinced 13 other countries, including Canada, Italy and South Korea, to join the U.S. in its ASAT testing ban.

Then in December 2022, with strong U.S. support, 155 nations approved a United Nations General Assembly resolution that encouraged states not to test ASATs in space.

In their general anti-American pique, China and Russia did not approve of the U.N. resolution, remaining consistent to defend their freedom to test ASAT weapons in space.

Now, from revelation in a May 17 The New York Times article “New Star Wars Plan: Pentagon Rushes To Counter Threats In Orbit,” we learn that the Biden Administration’s attempt to pursue arms control in space has in fact contributed to the insecurity of the United States, that the Department of Defense had determined that it requires space combat — anti satellite — capabilities.

The New York Times article stated:

The Pentagon is rushing to expand its capacity to wage war in space, convinced that rapid advances by China and Russia in space-based operations pose a growing threat to U.S. troops and other military assets on the ground and American satellites in orbit…Defense Department officials have increasingly acknowledged that the initiative reflects a major shift in military operations as space increasingly becomes a battleground.

The report continues:

No longer will the United States simply rely on military satellites to communicate, navigate and track and target terrestrial threats, tools that for decades have given the Pentagon a major advantage in conflicts. Instead, the Defense Department is looking to acquire a new generation of ground- and space-based tools that will allow it to defend its satellite network from attack and, if necessary, to disrupt or disable enemy spacecraft in orbit, Pentagon officials have said in a series of interviews, speeches and recent statements.

For two years Pentagon officials have made increasingly stark statements about Chinese and Russian threats to U.S. satellites crucial for the successful conduct of U.S. military operations on Earth.

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  commits to ‘offensive’ space military capabilities, U.S. finally abandons arms control