RealClear Defense by Steve Lambakis 7/25/2017
Steve Lambakis is a senior defense analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy. He is the author of the National Institute’s forthcoming publication, Foreign Space Capabilities: Implications for U.S. National Security.
The Trump Administration on June 30, 2017 resurrected the National Space Council, which, in the words of the president “will be a central hub guiding space policy within the administration.”
The council, terminated in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, will be chaired by Vice President Mike Pence and foster space activity coordination, cooperation, and space technology and information exchange among agencies and with the private sector.
Mr. Pence’s first agenda item must be shaping top-level policy guidance to boost protection of national security space systems.
Proliferation of space and counter-space capabilities is a concern inadequately addressed in existing policy and strategy documents, particularly when it comes to the development of a space deterrence strategy and the acquisition of systems to defend U.S. interests in space.
Both China and Russia continue to move steadily towards the development of counter-space weapons designed to deny, degrade, disrupt, deceive or destroy America’s satellites, depriving it of its global “eyes and ears” and world-circling data processing platforms so essential to its national security.
The Pentagon has particular concerns about weapons for jamming GPS signals and satellite communications, dazzling satellite sensors with ground-based lasers, and destroying satellites using ground-based guided missiles and orbiting anti-satellite platforms.
More:
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/07/25/action_item_1__protect_us_space_systems_111885.html
