Notes on Space Weapons and Current Public Attitudes Towards Space Warfare
I was reading today that most Americans and Russians agree that their governments should work together to prevent an arms race in space. Large majorities in both countries favor unilateral restraint and a treaty to keep space free of weapons.
Americans and Russians also support treaties to prohibit countries from attacking or interfering with each others’ satellites and from testing or deploying weapons designed to attack satellites.
These are among the key findings of a WorldPublicOpinion.org developed in conjunction with the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, (CISSM). Knowledge Networks in the United States and the Levada Center in Russia conducted the interviews.
Majorities in both the United States (78%) and Russia (67%) say that as long as no other country puts weapons into space, their own governments should also refrain from doing so. Most Russians (72%) and Americans (80%) favor a new treaty banning all weapons in space.
I found this interesting because China launched and successfully tested a satellite killer last year. And of course, both the Russians and the U.S. have long had programs that have been working on various weapons systems for use both in space and on the ground to take out space borne threats.
One of the interesting ground based systems that the U.S. has been developing for some time, courtesy of Lockheed Martin, is the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Weapon System. It can detect, track and intercept an incoming unitary target above the Earth’s atmosphere as well as inside the Earth’s atmosphere.
I mention the THAAD system because of its ability to take out targets outside our atmosphere. Although it’s supposed to be meant for taking out ballistic missiles originating from hostile countries, it occurs to me that this system could just as easily be deployed against satellites, other countries’ spacecraft and even any incoming extraterrestrial based threats.
I’m betting that the U.S. and the Russians have other weapons systems available and online by now that are ready to be used in any sort of space based battle; and apparently India says that they have the capability. I’ve only glanced at the various programs that they’ve been working on. Way back in the 80’s when I first heard about space weapons programs I was too busy concentrating on how to best train my men to survive more earthly based conflicts. So, although the subject has been in the back of my mind I haven’t given it too much thought until recently.
Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, commented about the poll: “What is striking is the robust consensus–among Russians as well as Americans and among Republicans as well as Democrats–that space should not be an arena for the major powers to compete for military advantage.”
John Steinbruner, director of CISSM, added that “the use of space for common protection is, in fact, far more important for all countries under the circumstances of globalization than the pursuit of national advantage in performing traditional military missions.”
Steinbruner’s comment is kind of suggestive and illuminating to me. If no one launches or uses space based weapons to be deployed against other countries on Earth, then the use of space for common protection leads me to think that people believe that there is an extraterrestrial threat that we all need to be banding together against.
It’s an interesting poll and I have to wonder what the real motivation behind it was.
Sources:
- WorldPublicOpinion.org
- Lockheed Martin
- Wikipedia: 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test
- Wikipedia: Anti-satellite Weapon
