US not to let rivals forge ‘hostile’ space capability
WASHINGTON, Oct 18: President George Bush has approved a new national space policy that calls for ‘freedom of action’ and the right to deny ‘adversaries’ space capabilities hostile to US interests.
Mr Bush authorised the new policy on Aug 31 and the document, which replaces a 1996 space policy, was published quietly by the White House on Oct 6.
“United States national security is critically dependent upon space capabilities, and this dependence will grow,” the strategic document says.
“The United States will preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; ... and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to US national interests,” it says.
“Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power.”
The text also rejects any treaties forbidding space weapons: “The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit US access to or use of space.”
The US government assured this new policy was not a first step toward a militarisation of space.
“This policy is not about developing or deploying weapons in space. Period,” a senior Bush administration official was quoted as saying by the Washington Post on Wednesday. That declaration raised eyebrows among experts.
“While this policy does not explicitly say we are not going to shoot satellites or we are going to put weapons in space, it does, it seems to me, open the door toward that,” Theresa Hitchens, director of the Centre for Defence Information, said.
According to Hitchens, this reading was confirmed by a series of US army documents that clearly express interest in space weapons.
She noted the new policy also represents a significant shift from its 10-year-old predecessor initiated under then-president Bill Clinton.
“This is a much more unilateralist vision of space. The United States in this policy seeks to establish its rights but fails to acknowledge the rights of other countries in space, where the Clinton policy was very careful to acknowledge the rights of all nations in space,” Hitchens said.
The United States currently enjoys supremacy in space, while Russia has lost most of its means and China is still in the development phase.
The Americans are the only ones capable of using satellites for combat operations and are doing it better and better if one compares the two wars in the Gulf and wars in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, Michael O’Hanlon, an expert at the Brookings Institution, testified during a congressional hearing in June. —AFP
