to US consider the space as a theater of war. However, testing of the Russian satellite, the inspector has caused outrage in Washington. The author reminds that Russia is more than ten years unsuccessfully called for the signing of the agreement on the demilitarization of space. Meanwhile, according to experts, USA today significantly lag behind China and Russia in the development of military space technology.
July 15, at a distance of approximately 615 kilometers from Earth, the Russian satellite “Cosmos-2543” activated its special — until a secret function, releasing the projectile into the atmosphere.
U.S. officials, concerned about the information on possible purpose of the satellite “Cosmos-2543” watched him for a few months after he approached too close to an American satellite-spy, which caused serious alarm. When “Space-2543” released its unknown cargo rocket into the atmosphere, he confirmed the suspicions of Americans: this is not an ordinary satellite.
The Russian side denies the information that she had a new military technology, however, after this incident, the international community again began to worry that the space becomes a new site of the strategic struggle for global domination. To many it recalled the plans of the late President Ronald Reagan to implement the initiative “Star wars,” including the establishment of military spacecraft. This incident also indicates a growing risk to key satellite infrastructure that provides a variety of systems, from GPS technology to the ability to launch nuclear weapons.
Russia and China “has turned the space into a region of warfare”, recently told reporters Christopher Ford (Christopher Ford), assistant Secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation. According to him, “the chief cosmic troublemaker” is Moscow, which managed twice to test anti-satellite weapons.
A few days later, after Moscow rejected the accusations of the United States in the conduct of the weapons tests, officials of the two countries met in Vienna for their first since the end of cold war negotiations on security issues in space. One member of the U.S. delegation, called the talks a “long, interesting and productive”, but to conclude any agreement similar to the agreements governing terrestrial-based weapons will require a lot of timetime — if at all possible.
Russia more than ten years unsuccessfully called for the signing of the Treaty that would regulate arms in space, and now United States are engaged in similar discussions with China. The main issue for diplomats was the question of what can be considered a space weapon.
The administration of the tramp does not want to engage in the formulation of a definition of space weapons, and instead wants to negotiate about the application of all rules of armed conflict to space and the establishment of a communication channel in a crisis situation — as it was during the cold war with Russia — to be able to quickly resolve issues in the event of a conflict in space.
American officials insist on the need to ensure “unimpeded access” to space, which the United States used its military, communication and commercial purposes to a much greater extent than any other country. Moscow and Beijing separately from each other suggested to impose limits on terrestrial-based weapons that may pose a threat to satellites, but American experts say the two countries have already developed such weapons.
“Now that they’ve put a gun to our head, they are ready to sit down and talk,” said Todd Harrison (Todd Harrison), an expert on security issues in space at the Center for strategic and international studies in Washington. He added that the main difficulty of such negotiations is that “each participating country will try to push the definition that corresponds to its own interests”.
Significant differences remain. “Russia and the United States can find a common language when it comes to what can be considered “peaceful action” in space. This poses a serious problem,” said Beyza Unal (Beyza Unal), senior researcher at the Royal Institute of international Affairs.
World powers have long regarded the space as a potential battlefield. The plan, which President Reagan stated in 1983 and which received the name Star wars after a popular movie, released around the same time, envisaged the creation of a new space weapons to counter the threat from the Soviet Union, which, in turn, warned that the creation of such systems will make nuclear war inevitable.
Today, the United States considers space as a theater of war and simulates battles covering space, in the simulation of future large-scale conflicts. In Russia, too, there is a special command structure that is responsible for the Earth’s atmosphere and the space beyond.
Meanwhile, in order for you��esti incapacitate or destroy satellites, sophisticated weapons are required. Given the extreme fragility of satellites and the fact that they travel thousands of miles per hour, enough even a simple collision. “Now it is a lot of talk about lasers and weapons in the spirit of “Star wars”, but in fact to destroy the satellites of another country, do not need any ultra-modern weapons, said one senior us official during negotiations in Vienna. — Just need a kick — a slight collision in space”.
This official continued: “the Idea of banning weapons in space is misleading. Now we need regulations for preventing collisions, there are rules for how we will operate systems in space.”
Moscow said that the incident with the “Space-2543” was a test of “satellite inspector”, who shall inspect the Russian satellites. The Kremlin stressed that he remains “committed to the complete demilitarization of space.”
Meanwhile, as American officials called the test a Russian space weapons “provocative, dangerous and unreasonable,” the experts indicate that the United States also already have a space weapon, but while not actively engaged in the development of the “kinetic” options. In 2008, the United States shot down one of its satellites, probably to demonstrate their capabilities and strength a year later after something like China did.
This week, the U.S. Department of defense warned in its report that in space, America was already ahead and that she will have to accept “the status [of the country] of the second class.” The authors of the report recalled last year’s output of the space command of the United States that Washington needs to “create a military force structure that will protect the international order and the interests of the United States in space.”
Joe Moser (Joe Mozer), chief scientific consultant in the space forces of the United States, recently established by President Donald trump said this week: “We need to beat our strategic rivals”.
Meanwhile the brave America’s ambitions in space — from the return to the moon in 2024 to the hopes of the founder of Tesla Elon musk to create a colony on Mars and make humanity mnogoletnim view — the risk to encounter such obstacles as the need to ensure security in outer space and the danger of military threats to such missions.
According to Unal, the lack of agreements governing the deployment of weapons in outer space, a country seeking to protect its space objects, can push each other to the development of more powerful weapons, which will increase the risk of full-scale conflict in space.
“Major powers have already demonstrated stremme��compared to purchasing technology for the creation of space weapons, she said. But there will always be new technologies that will Eclipse the tools created in the past.”
