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Space Wars Coming to a Sky Above You

Nuclear missiles are horrible weapons, but also great deterrents. Despite the threat of total annihilation they pose, they have managed to keep a global war from destroying the planet for nearly 80 years. Should they ever be used, however, peace will last for all eternity.
Satellite busters being developed by Russia and China 1 photo
Photo: NASA
Since there is no winner in a nuclear war, the only way around the annihilation of both the enemy and your own population would be developing weapons capable of taking down communications, radars, positioning systems and so on, all those technologies modern armies could not exist without. And since most these capabilities are controlled from space, that would mean taking out satellites.

The 2018 Worldwide Threat Assessment released last week by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence warns that two of the country’s potential foes, Russia and China, continue to pursue anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons as a means to reduce US and allied military effectiveness.

What’s worrisome for the American intelligence community is the assertion that both countries will have operational capability for ASAT systems within a few years. Of particular concern is the development of weapons capable of knocking out missile defense hardware, the report says.

The report somewhat accuses both China and Russia of using technologies with peaceful applications, for instance harrdware used for satellite inspection, refueling, and repair, as a means to develop satellite-killers.

Included in the Emerging and Disruptive Technology chapter of the report, satellite-busting weapons are considered equally as threatening as the widespread proliferation of artificial intelligence.

“Russia and China continue to publicly and diplomatically promote international agreements on the nonweaponization of space and “no first placement” of weapons in space," says the report.

"However, many classes of weapons would not be addressed by such proposals, allowing them to continue their pursuit of space warfare capabilities while publicly maintaining that space must be a peaceful domain.”
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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