Weaponizing the Final Frontier: The United States and the New Space Race

Abstract

Weaponizing space has been a major topic of debate in the United States for over sixty years. Recent steps by adversarial nations continue to increase tensions in the space domain. The central research question is, should the United States develop and deploy weapons in space? The ultimate decision is driven by the National Space Policy developed by the President of the United States. The two major courses of action are develop and deploy space based (offensive and defensive) or continue the path towards maintaining space as a peaceful sanctuary. Either decision will have numerous impacts on the national instruments of power and operational variables. The best course of action for the United States is to maintain the initiative by developing and deploying space based weapons in order to protect national security and freedom of access.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 09, 2017
Accession Number
AD1039544

Entities

People

  • Joseph Solano

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Anti-Ballistic Missiles
  • Anti-Satellite Missiles
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • International Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Navigation
  • Organizational Structure
  • Space Based
  • Space Environments
  • Space Systems
  • Treaties
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States Strategic Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Missile Defense Systems.
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Space