Space Race to War is On, According to Alarmists, ahem, Officials

The AFP has reported a new threat to the world, a new arms race. And it may be just that. The possibility of satellites being wiped out not only could be in the nearby future, but the chaos caused from such a blow would be devastating to the technological world that we’ve come to rely on. “Hells bells,” I hear you say, “Not the SatNav!”

 The United States has acknowledged in recent weeks that the space race is back on, concerned that the encroaching capabilities of China and Russia may in fact, lead to an “Achilles heel” for U.S. space advancement – particularly with the vulnerabilities of their current satellites and military operations. 

Deborah Lee James, the U.S. Airforce Secretary explained the situation last month. “We are changing the culture in our space enterprise because we need to get our heads around… what happens if a conflict on Earth extends to space. How will we defend our assets?”

What is crucial for military power, and national security – for any nation (not just the U.S.) – are the satellites above. Both China and Russia have developed their own low-orbit satellites that can maneuver in space. Several, from both nations, have been launched since 2013.

General John Hyten, the head of the U.S. Airforce’s Space Command spoke about the arms race in September. “The Department of Defense has aggressively moved out to develop responses that we see coming from China and Russia. I believe it’s essential that we go faster in our responses.”  

In 2015, Hyten explained his perception to 60 minutes reporter David Martin, of what would happen to the United States military “without space.”

“Think of what life used to be like and all the things that we have today in warfare that wouldn’t exist without space. Remotely piloted aircraft, all-weather precision guided munitions didn’t exist before space. Now we can attack any target on the planet, anytime, anywhere, in any weather.

What happens is you go back to World War II. You go back to industrial age warfare.”

But the hyped up U.S. approach, which routinely emphasizes the Devil’s approach when discussing other nations’ agendas, has already advanced American technology to exceed that of its counterparts, and since 2004, the AFP reports, has possessed a ground jamming station that “can block satellite communications.”

There are no two ways about it, a space war would devastate our tech savvy approach to life. It may well devastate and disrupt our economical way of life, possibly bumping us way back into the 1930s-40s. But for the moment, the U.S. has the advantage, albeit it may be losing some of its space lead.

Teresa Hitchins, a senior research scholar for the University of Maryland, specializes in International and Security Studies. “We are at a very dangerous place right now: if we actually ever fought a war that would involve anti-satellite weapon, we would damage the space environment to such an extent that it would make it very difficult to have the benefits that satellites provide to society,” Hitchins says, something you would expect from a resident so close to D.C.

The alarmist view is as equally dangerous as those of the actions themselves. The chaos and rumor created can cause as much damage. It’s important to take the hype with a grain of stardust. The sky is always falling, according to them – and in the event of the space race, we may just have to watch out for the space junk, too.

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