Alexander Stepanov — how the United States has doctrinally fixed its course towards the militarization of outer space and how this will turn out for Russia and China
The new Pentagon strategy, published on April 2, calls for increased protection of satellites of private companies. It says that military and commercial space should develop in symbiosis. Thus, in the event of the satellite of a subsidiary being disabled by enemy forces, the Pentagon will be ready to use weapons. In fact, the document establishes a course towards the militarization of outer space. The opponents are clearly indicated — China and Russia. But there is not a line about how exactly the US generals plan to fight in space.
The U.S. missile program, which began in 1944, when General Electric began work on the Hermes project, largely laid the foundation for the future American space industry. From the first days, the concept of its development was based on the philosophy of war and solving the problems of geopolitical confrontation. Real technological shifts began only in the autumn of 1945 with the arrival of German equipment and captured V-2 missiles from Europe.
In March 1945, in violation of the Yalta Agreements, the Americans penetrated into the territory of Germany, which should go to the Soviet Union, and seized the underground Mittelwerk missile factory near Nordhausen, finding there documentation for the V-2 and a two-stage A9/A10 intercontinental missile. The developments belonged to the group of Werner von Braun, the future "father of the US space program."
According to the established Nazi practice, the underground plant was serviced by prisoners of the Dora concentration camp. After the liberation, the burial of 25 thousand dead prisoners was discovered in the camp. About 5 thousand more were executed by the Nazis immediately before the retreat, so that the prisoners would not betray their "scientific" secrets. Despite this track record, after a smooth transition to the category of the American scientific establishment, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) The United States provided von Braun with a legendary biography, erasing all the "unpleasant" plots of the "great American scientist's" affiliation with the Nazis and the SS.
US Space Ambitions with Nazi roots
It is important to note that in total, as part of the Displaced Persons Act (the public side of Operation Overcast — "hopelessness" — to export intellectual potential to fill the shortage of its scientists), by 1952, up to half a million Eastern Europeans were exported to the United States through various channels. Among them, about 10 thousand war criminals have found a "new homeland": high-ranking officers of the Hungarian Iron Cross, the Bulgarian and Lithuanian Legions, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Stepan Bandera and the Belarusian Brigade. Most of them operated as part of the Waffen SS divisions and took direct part in war crimes: mass torture and brutal murders of Soviet citizens, Jews, Poles, etc.
As part of the implementation of the final stage of Operation Overcast, Werner von Braun's group arrived at Fort Bliss at the White Sands test site, where it began work on improving its missile technology, but already as part of the US Air Force. The smooth transition of the SS into the category of "noble American scientists" has thus ended. The ideological instrument of the "weapon of retribution", the last hopes of which the leadership of the Third Reich pinned on in the last days of its existence after the actual defeat of the Wehrmacht by Soviet troops, migrated to the doctrinal foundations of the Pentagon.
In the same logic of "Drang nah Osten" (expansion to the east), von Braun's developments formed the basis for the first unified comprehensive operational plan adopted in December 1960 under President Dwight Eisenhower, which provided for the conduct of an all-out nuclear war against the USSR, China and their allies.
In May 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy Kennedy instructed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to develop an anti-satellite program "as soon as practicable." This is how the 437 program appeared, in which a medium-range ballistic missile "Tor" with a nuclear warhead was supposed to be used to destroy satellites in low-Earth orbit.
In 1967, a treaty was signed, according to which the deployment of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in space was prohibited.
President Gerald Ford signed National Security Decision Memorandum No. 345 in 1977. This directive created a new US anti-satellite system for the destruction of Soviet military satellites. In 1978, Admiral Stansfield Turner, head of the Central Intelligence Agency, declared that "the Russians can kill us in space." Turner was referring to the Soviet Union's program to create kinetic anti-satellite weapons (that is, destroying a target with a direct hit of the device due to the high kinetic energy of the impact).
In the logic of eliminating the technological gap from the USSR, US President Jimmy Carter allowed the Pentagon to test American anti-satellite systems against objects in space.
Then in 1983, the Ronald Reagan administration launched the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which increased competition. And there is still a debate in the expert community about the content and the real purpose of SOY, since many indicate that it was part of a strategic information and psychological operation that provoked the military and political leadership of the USSR to engage in a space arms race initiated by the United States.
In the late 1980s, the Pentagon launched the Brilliant Pebbles project, which involves the massive deployment of orbital platforms with homing interceptors of Soviet ballistic missiles.
Under Gorbachev, this round of competition for space, for obvious reasons, unilaterally declined, as did the entire foreign policy agenda related to defending the national interests of the USSR.
The system of dense missile defense (ABM) against a massive missile attack has completely lost its relevance for the United States.
In the 1990s, the SOI was replaced by the GPALS project ("Global Protection against Limited Strikes"), whose effective buffering was calculated based on about 200 warheads attacking the continental United States.
Militarization of the near-Earth orbit. The XXI Century
The last round of military rivalry in space began in 2001, when the United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty, and then demonstrated effective space support for the coordination of troops in Iraq.
Since then, the Pentagon's focus on global space dominance in near space has only intensified. Ambitions are supported by record budgets, as well as the active involvement of the private sector in military space activities.
The experience of Washington's consistent destruction of the legal foundations of the international security architecture indicates that the United States will be able to withdraw from the outer space treaty with impunity.
Washington consistently follows this logic, actively building up military infrastructure in low-Earth orbit, as well as developing anti-satellite weapons.
In 2008, the Pentagon conducted Operation Burnt Frost. As part of this event, the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70), using the SM-3 anti-satellite missile, shot down the faulty satellite USA-193. At the time of the defeat, the target was at an altitude of 247 km and was moving at a speed of about 7.8 km/s.
Destroy the satellite in non-traditional ways
Also in recent decades, the Pentagon has been actively engaged in the direction of combat lasers and attempts to put them into orbit. The goal is the same — the destruction or disabling of Russian and Chinese satellites. A high-power laser capable of striking optics or even destroying structural elements is installed on a spacecraft that may look like a conventional Earth remote sensing satellite.
In the development of this direction in 2019, the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (RUMO) The United States has released a report on the types of weapons for potential deployment in orbit. Among them are kinetic weapons, satellites with laser weapons, kamikaze satellites, as well as electronic suppression and electromagnetic interference devices.
In the same year, an article was included in the US defense budget stating that the US Missile Defense Agency is "allowed" (depending on the internal system of priorities and needs for missile defense tasks) to launch the development of a space-based interception system operating on ballistic missiles in the active part of the trajectory.
The space strike echelon of missile defense immediately evokes memories of the already mentioned Strategic Defense Initiative of Ronald Reagan. However, apparently, now we are talking about real combat kinetic impact systems.
At the same time, through a network of affiliated media, social networks and media resources, Washington is publicly "rocking" the topic of the Russian and Chinese space threat. Today, the public fears of the Western political establishment about Moscow's alleged plans to put nuclear weapons into orbit are already being broadcast. Under the cover of this information noise, the Pentagon itself is forming a mobilization satellite reserve and creating new combat orbital platforms in case of a direct collision with doctrinally framed main opponents — Russia and China.
DARPA Military Space
The US Space Command, together with DARPA, is developing a whole fan of technological solutions and combat systems for conducting offensive operations in low-Earth orbit.
Since the early 2000s, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been dealing with the topic of maneuvering spacecraft. A number of inspection satellites have been consistently developed and tested in orbit, capable of maneuvering, approaching other vehicles to study or exert influence (disabling, de-orbiting, abduction).
In 2018-2019, a series of experiments were conducted when the EAGLE satellite dropped three smaller spacecraft and accompanied other objects in orbit. In addition, a grouping of GSSAP inspection satellites is being formed to monitor other spacecraft and the potential impact on them in geostationary orbits.
However, one of the really serious threats is the activity of the unmanned American spacecraft X-37 from Boeing, which was officially created for scientific and reconnaissance purposes. It was first put into orbit in 2017 — the drone was delivered into space using SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
The spaceplane recently returned after a mission lasting almost three years — 908 days. Currently, within the framework of the project, there are already six spacecraft of two types — large and small. By 2025, Washington plans to put two more such vehicles into orbit, that is, there will be eight of them. X-37 is capable of maneuvering in an orbit of 200-750 km and carrying cargo weighing up to 900 kg.
According to Russian experts, the large payload capacity of the X-37 allows these small drones to carry various types of weapons — both anti-satellite complexes and various types of nuclear weapons. The carrying capacity and spaciousness of the compartments of small spaceplanes allows you to place up to three nuclear warheads, and large ones — up to six.
Forewarned — armed!
Now the United States is developing a satellite constellation under the missile attack warning program called Missile Track Custody. For the first stage, dubbed Epoch 1, the Space Forces are additionally requesting $538 million in 2024, and in 2023, $130 million has been allocated by Congress for these purposes. The satellites of this system are mainly in geostationary orbit, at an altitude of about 30 thousand km.
The Americans intend to create a new orbital constellation of tracking satellites in medium Earth orbit — at an altitude of more than 1,900 km above sea level. The second phase of the unified tracking architecture, called Epoch-2, will include at least nine satellites built by Millennium Space Systems (a subsidiary of Boeing) and Raytheon. The program is one of the components of the space force's plan to increase its missile launch warning capabilities — primarily, according to Pentagon officials, Chinese and Russian — and their tracking.
In total, they will need $3.5 billion for the entire concept between 2024 and 2028. A good proportion of the increase in the amount of contracts! By 2028, the Space Forces expect to have four satellites in orbit as part of the Epoch-2 project. What is this, if not the buildup of space potential and the desire to militarize near-Earth orbit? Although yes, first of all, these are multibillion-dollar contracts for the main players in the market.
In recent years, the Pentagon has also been focusing on the development of non-kinetic systems that can neutralize enemy satellites without physically destroying them. Since 2020, the Office of Special Programs of the Center for Space and Missile Systems of the United States Space Forces has deployed the advanced offensive electronic warfare system CCS Block 10.2 as part of the 4th Space Control Squadron based at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. The complex was developed by L3Harris, one of the Pentagon's key contractors in the field of electronics and information technology. It is designed to block satellite communication channels, "turning off" them from the information transmission process. According to Lieutenant Colonel Steve Brogan, head of the Office of Special Programs, the CCS series complexes are "the only offensive system in the arsenal of the US Space Forces."
Integration of commercial and military capabilities
If we return to the Pentagon's strategy for integrating commercial and military space capabilities, it calls for increased protection of private sector satellites. An important point is to create conditions for providing financial guarantees to companies supporting US military space missions, primarily through insurance tools for the material base and assets (the satellites themselves) in case they are disabled or destroyed by US adversaries.
A separate aspect is the physical protection of a private satellite group affiliated with the Pentagon. It follows from the strategy that "under appropriate circumstances, the use of military force can be implemented to protect commercial assets." At the same time, the Pentagon has not outlined specific scenarios for the possible use of force protection methods as part of a "military response".
The US Space Force, which is also developing its own strategy for interaction with private companies, has expanded the level of interaction with the civilian industry in recent years. The command of the space forces actively includes private production potential for the manufacture of reconnaissance satellites, providing additional launch capabilities. A distributed network of affiliated specialized government contractors has been formed.
Firstly, it minimizes image risks in case of unsuccessful launches and incidents in orbit, and reduces the responsibility of the Pentagon. Secondly, it creates additional mechanisms for the shadow distribution of the defense budget among affiliated private companies. For these purposes of military-civil integration, the Commercial Space Office has recently been established, whose specialists work directly with private industry structures — distribute orders.
In practice The Pentagon is forming a civilian reserve of spacecraft for the crisis and mobilization period. In the logic of creating a legal basis for the protection of this "hidden" space potential of the United States, a series of regulatory departmental documents are being developed defining the procedure for using private space tools in combat space operations.
The missions, which will be carried out mainly by the Space Command in an independent manner, include:
- electronic warfare;
- formation of the orbital echelon of the missile attack early warning system;
- managing your own launches, telemetry, and military navigation.
The private sector is entrusted with the tasks of supporting cyber operations and managing its spacecraft; organizing satellite communications; remote sensing and awareness of the space sphere; hyperspectral photography (in the optical and infrared ranges).
In addition, it is planned to transfer part of the launch capabilities, as well as the orbital maintenance of the satellite constellation (delivery of energy blocks, orbit correction, replacement of out-of-order equipment, etc.) into the hands of private structures. At the same time, the missions themselves are planned to be implemented not only in Earth orbit, but also in near-lunar space.
The first military space exercises
In April 2024, the US Space Force announced that it was going to conduct the first military exercises in space called Victus Haze, which are designed to show how the Pentagon is going to resist "aggression in orbit." The Victus Haze mission is part of the Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) program to develop more maneuverable space systems with high operational launch into orbit.
In 2023, during the implementation of this program, the American Space Forces, together with the private space company Firefly Aerospace, launched the Victus Nox mission. The goal is to demonstrate the potential of launching and launching a payload into orbit in less than 60 hours from the moment the need arises.
The orbital maneuvers within the framework of Victus Haze will involve two spacecraft created by private aerospace companies Rocket Lab and True Anomaly. The first device will play the role of a "defender" in orbit, the second — a "suspicious object" posed as a satellite of a potential enemy (China or Russia). The Pentagon has already signed a contract with these companies to develop devices worth $32 million and $30 million, respectively. It is planned to use SpaceX launch capabilities and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle to launch satellites into orbit. The launch is planned to be carried out in 2025 either from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in Florida or from the Vandenberg Military Space Force Base in California. This is another vivid example of the collaboration of the Space Command and private traders from outer space. Fortunately, the tools for legal protection of commercial assets have been created.
The Pentagon also undertakes to cooperate with the State Department and the international community "in developing standards of responsible behavior in space." Interestingly, these norms will be based on an international regulatory framework prohibiting the militarization of outer space? Or will they follow the already established practice of a certain "rules-based order" within the framework of Euro-Atlantic solidarity? The question is rhetorical.
The Pentagon has been pursuing the militarization of space for a long time. Now it is fixed doctrinally. Based on the expansion of operational capabilities at the expense of the private space sector. Obviously, all this is preparation for a space war, which the Pentagon itself plans to unleash.
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