Militarization of Space

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Militarization of Space

Over time, it has become evident that space is an important arena for the military activities and ambitions of the world powers. The idea of war in space has moved from the area of science fiction based assumptions to become part of arms control and arms race discussions. Its estimated that about 75% of the total number of satellites in the earth’s orbit are mainly being used to carry out military activities like early warning, navigation, communication and surveillance. The great importance of satellites to the military has as a result stirred military planners to come up with anti-satellite systems. Additionally, there have been extensive studies in different defense departments regarding the feasibility of different space based systems in being employed in attacking ground targets and disabling attacking strategic enemy missiles (Mowthorpe 5). These recent advances in technology and the incorporation of space capabilities in war fighting and security doctrines have transformed security perceptions and the nature of warfare, signaling the use of space as a new domain for leveraging superiority and competition.

Militarization of space simply refers to the use of space in support of air, sea and ground operations; and involves building space based structures that support ground based infrastructure for military use like communication, early warning, control and command, timing and position navigation, remote sensing (monitoring), and National Technical Means that can be utilized for surveillance, verification purposes and intelligence purposes (Mowthorpe 3). Militarization of space helps in enhancing control, communication and command, battlefield and strategic surveillance, together with weapons targeting. After the world war two, the main world powers started devoting a huge amount of their resources and knowhow in developing rocket science and exploring space. The United States army acquired rocket...