Air Force mulling over programs to kill, protect satellites in space warfare.

• Author: Pappalardo, Joe
• Position: Upfront

Much to the consternation of advocates who oppose the use of arms in space, the Air Force is speaking bluntly about its right and intention to explore the orbital deployment of weapons platforms.

That objective is not new, and broad hints of it have come in earlier documents, first articulated in 2001 in a report of a space commission chaired by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. But the Air Force's official focus traditionally has been on countermeasures and protective technology, rather than on killing enemy satellites.

Two documents released this year indicate that, while perhaps not codified, the Air Force is acknowledging that space will not be weapon-free, and that dominating space will require armaments in orbit.

The Air Force last February revealed concepts for weapons that could disrupt or destroy spacecraft. Mentioned were space-based radio transmitters, air-launched missiles and ground-based lasers. In August, it released another document, called "Counterspace Operations," that went further in describing the doctrine of space warfare. Officials advocated development of anti-satellite (ASAT) munitions on space vehicles. "Space superiority provides freedom to attack as well as freedom from attack," the report stated.

The Bush administration currently is reviewing the National Space Policy that was set forth in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. It leaves many gray areas of space weapons doctrine.

The Center for Defense Information, a group that is working to keep space weapons from being deployed, called the 1996 rules "vague and somewhat contradictory," but "widely interpreted ... as eschewing if not prohibiting in some cases, the deployment of ASATs and on-orbit weapons." Groups opposed to placing weapons in space worry that testing could add to dangerous orbital debris and encourage other nations to develop them, which could trigger an arms race in space.

Now it appears, according to CDI analyst Theresa Hitchens, that the Air Force is adopting a more aggressive policy.

"In effect, the new document establishes as fact U.S. Air Force intentions to not only weaponize space, but also conduct anti-satellite operations, possibly preemptively, against enemy military satellites as well as those with primarily civilian functions," she wrote in an October analysis of the counterspace operations report.

The two reports give anti-weapons groups, such as CDI, plenty to worry about. February's report, called "The Transformation Flight Plan,"...