Straight from the [War] Horse’s Mouth The following quotations, largely culled from U.S. military “We’re going to fight a war in space. We’re going to sources, were selected by Press for Conversion! editor, fight from space and we’re going to fight into space.” Richard Sanders. They illustrate, beyond any reasonable General Joseph W Ashy, then Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Space doubt, that the U.S. military fully intends to continue Command, August 5, 1996. militarizing space and to deploy space-based weapons. 1996: New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 21st Century Space Operations Doctrine “In the next two decades, new technologies will allow the “When you think about protecting this nation’s global inter- fielding of space-based weapons of devastating effective- ests, you have to remember it ness to be used to deliver energy and mass as force projec- starts with space. It’s a presence tion in tactical and strategic conflict.... These advances will with a real impact.... Because of enable lasers with reasonable mass and cost to effect very what we do in the space medium, many kills…. This can be done rapidly, continuously, and I would suggest that space is the with surgical precision, minimizing exposure of friendly fourth dimension of warfare.... forces. The technologies exist or can be developed in this Air and space power is the force time period.…. Setting the emotional issues of nuclear power of the future, and the Air Force – aside, this technology offers a viable alternative for large the nation’s Air Force – is Ameri- amounts of power in space.” ca’s only full service air force that New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 21st Century, is dedicated to providing air and Report, U.S. Air Force Board, 1996. space power as the sole purpose Fogleman of its existence.” General Ronald R. Fogleman “It’s politically sensi- tive, but it’s going to “Our mission is to defend the U.S. through the control and exploitation happen. Some people of air and space.” don’t want to hear General Merrill McPeak this, and it sure isn’t “Today, the ultimate high ground is in vogue, but – abso- space.” lutely – we’re going General Joseph W. Ashy, then Com- to fight in space. McPeak mander-in-Chief, U.S. Space Command We’re going to fight “In Desert Storm, we used from space and we’re space-based ballistic missile going to fight into warning, communications, space. That’s why the weather, navigation, and intel- ligence as force enhancers and U.S. has developed in some cases, mission ena- programs in directed blers.... Space systems also energy and hit-to-kill play key roles in humanitarian Ashy mechanisms. We will operations, disaster relief, drug engage terrestrial targets someday – ships, airplanes, enforcement, and peacekeep- land targets – from space. We will engage targets ing missions.... Exploiting space allows us to establish and Widnall in space, from space.” maintain ‘information dominance,’ enabling our fighting General Joseph Ashy, then commander-in-chief, U.S. Space Com- forces to operate inside the enemy’s decision loop.” mand, interview with Aviation Week Space Technology, 1996. Sheila E. Widnall, former Secretary of the Air Force FOR A MORE JUST AND Moorman “Desert Storm...was a water- PEACEFUL WORLD shed event in military space ap- Since 1931, Quakers plications because for the first For more information and in Canada have a free copy of our news- time, space systems were both worked through Canadian Friends letter, Quaker Concern, integral to the conflict and criti- Service Committee. The CFSC please contact us: cal to the outcome of the war.” works in Canada and around the CFSC, 60 Lowther Ave, General Thomas S. Moorman, Jr. Toronto ON M5R 1C7 world promoting peace, commu- 416-920-5213 The five quotations above are from “Space Operations Doctrine,” nity empowerment, restorative jus- Air Force Doctrine Document 4, July 10, 1996. [email protected] tice, equality and sustainability. www.cfsc.quaker.ca 16 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 55) December 2004 1997: Vision for 2020 “Navies and armies have evolved to protect national inter- ests and investments. As sea commerce advanced in the 18th and 19th Centuries, nations formed navies to project power and to protect and enhance their commercial interests. Simi- larly, during the westward expansion of the continental U.S., military outposts and cavalry emerged to protect our wagon trains, settlements and railroads. Air power emerged differently because it evolved to sup- port land and sea operations (e.g., communications and re- connaissance), not to protect national economic interests. Over time, however, air power became a separate instrument of warfare, protecting national interests and ensuring free- dom of action in the air. Eventually, space power will parallel both models. For sev- eral decades, it has mainly supported land, sea, and air op- erations—strategically and operationally. Early in the 21st Vision for 2020. This U.S. Space Command [SPACECOM] re- Century, space will become another medium of warfare. As port was first published in February 1997. Slightly modified ver- the U.S. relies more on space-based capabilities, space forces sions have since appeared as sections within other SPACECOM may protect the country’s commercial assets in this medium. documents, such as the “Long Range Plan,” April 1998. This re- Space power will help overcome the widening gap between port’s front and back covers depict space-based laser weapons, increasing military commitments and diminishing resources.” one of which is destroying a target on the Earth’s surface. The “Future Trends: Although unlikely to be challenged by a caption reads: “Space... the war fighters’ edge.” SPACECOM “co- global peer competitor, the U.S. will continue to be chal- ordinates the use of Army, Navy, and Air Force space forces” was lenged regionally. The globalization of the world economy created in 1985 to “help institutionalize the use of space.” will also continue, with a widening between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ Accelerating rates of technological development “With regard to space dominance, will be increasingly driven by the commercial sector – not we have it, we like it, and we’re the military. Increased weapons lethality and precision will going to keep it…. Space is in the lead to new operational doctrine.” nation’s economic interest.” “The emerging synergy of space superiority with land, sea Keith Hall, Pres. Clinton’s Assistant Sec- and air superiority will lead to Full Spectrum Dominance. retary, Air Force for Space, and Director, Space power will be ... decisive in war, and preeminent in National Reconnaissance Office. Speech to any form of conflict. Increased weapons lethality will lead National Space Club, 1997. Hall to new operational doctrine... space superiority is emerging as an essential element of battlefield success and future war- “Just as by the year 1500 it was apparent that the European fare. There will be a critical need to control the space me- experience of power would be its domination of the global dium to ensure U.S. dominance on future battlefields.” seas, it does not take much to see that the American experi- “Control of space is... an ability to deny others the use of ence of power will rest on the domination of space.... Just as space, the fourth medium of warfare. Europe expanded war and its power to the global oceans, “Global Engagement is the application of precision force the U.S. is expanding war and its power into space.... Just as from, to, and through space. USSPACECOM will have a Europe shaped the world for half a millennium, so too the greatly expanded role as an active warfighter in the years U.S. will shape the world for at least that length of time.... ahead as the combatant command responsible for National For better or worse, America has seized hold of the future of Missile Defense (NMD) and space force application. Glo- war, and with it – for a time – the future of humanity.” bal Engagement combines global surveillance with the po- George and Meredith Friedman, The Future of War: Power, Tech- tential for a space-based global precision strike capability.” nology & American World Dominance in the 21st Century, 1997. “The proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass de- struction requires an NMD. NMD will evolve into a mix of “The age of the gun is over.... He ground and space sensors and weapons. Existing land, sea, who controls space controls the and air missions will been hanced by space systems. Current battlefield. [Other nations] lack sea and air strategic attack missions will be augmented by the money and/or technology to the deployment of space force application systems.” compete with us in the develop- “As the US military relies more on space, our vulnerabil- ment of space-age weapons.” ity also increases, so we must protect our space assets and Interview, George Friedman, “Why be able to deny other nations from gaining an advantage the 21st could be the American Cen- tury,” Parade/Washington Post, April through their space systems.” Friedman 6, 1997. December 2004 (Issue # 55) Press for Conversion! 17 creating regional unrest.” “Future potential adversaries will challenge the US ability to maintain a comparative advantage.” “US interests and investments in space must be fully pro- tected to ensure our nation’s freedom of action in space.” “By 2020, a robust and fully integrated suite of space and terrestrial capabilities will provide dominant battlespace awareness enabling on-demand targeting and engagement of all ballistic and cruise missiles, and if directed by the National Command Authority (the President), the ability to identify, track and hold at risk designated high value terres- trial targets.” “Control of space is the ability to assure access to space, freedom of operations within the space medium, and an abil- ity to deny others the use of space.” “Today, policy for military space systems resembles that of aviation at the beginning of the 20th Century.