https://crsreports.congress.gov
August 10, 2021
Space as a Warfighting Domain: Issues for Congress
Introduction
The United States is in the midst of making significant
changes to policy on protecting national security pertaining
to outer space. Military strategists increasingly consider
space to be a warfighting domain—a location where
offensive and defensive military operations take place—
similar to air, land, and sea. During the Cold War, both the
U.S. and the Soviet Union approached space as a sanctuary
and a non-warfighting domain. However, many states and
international entities, including the Department of Defense
and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), now
declare space a warfighting domain.
Many countries rely on the capabilities that civilian and
military space systems provide. Many governments have
agreed in principle that space should remain a domain used
for peaceful purposes and for the benefit of all humankind.
Various treaties and agreements are the mechanisms in
place to promote the principle of space as a peaceful
domain, but these do not prevent nations from having or
conducting counterspace operations.
Space Threats
Militaries around the world are preparing for future wars
with assets located in space and developing counterspace
technologies. According to the 2020 U.S. Defense Space
Strategy, China and Russia have weaponized space as a
means to reduce U.S. and allied partners’ freedom of
operation in space. Likewise, that document claims that
China has tested and proven counterspace capabilities that
threaten U.S. and allied partners’ satellites and national
security. The militarization of space as an issue dates back
to the late 1950s, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik
1, the first manmade object placed into the Earth’s orbit. In
1958, the United States launched its first satellite, Explorer
1. This was the beginning of a new competition and space
arms race between two great powers. Through the evolution
of technological advancements, the accessibility to reach
and use space has increased for a growing number of
governments and nonstate actors.
Many U.S. defense experts describe space as the ultimate
military high ground, with particular importance to
communications, intelligence, and missile-warning
surveillance operations. Adversaries such as China and
Russia have studied warfighting concepts and focused on
space systems as a particular U.S. vulnerability. China and
Russia are reported to be pursuing nondestructive and
destructive counterspace weapon capabilities, such as
jammers, lasers, kinetic-kill or anti-satellite (ASAT)
systems, and cyber-attack capabilities. U.S. military
officials have stated that U.S. satellites no longer enjoy
sanctuary in space, and that U.S. military space superiority
can no longer be taken for granted.
China and Russia are developing and testing multiple
counterspace technologies that potentially threaten U.S. and
allied partners’ space assets. Counterspace systems include
kinetic physical, nonkinetic physical, electronic, and cyber.
Kinetic physical includes direct ascent weapons (i.e.
missiles) that attempt to strike a satellite and co-orbital
which is first placed into orbit (i.e. satellites), then once
commanded it maneuvers and strikes its target. Nonkinetic
physical can include lasers, high-powered microwave
weapons, and nuclear weapons detonated in space that
create an electromagnetic pulse. Electronic targets the
means through which space systems transmit and receive
data by jamming or spoofing radio frequency (RF) signals.
Cyber targets the data itself.
Part of the U.S. military response in defending against these
capabilities is the National Space Defense Center (NSDC)
at Schriever AFB, Colorado. The NSDC is a joint and
interagency effort between the Department of Defense, the
Intelligence Community, and commercial industry to
research U.S. space vulnerabilities and develop tactics and
doctrine to deal with potential attacks on space systems.
Space Command vs. Space Force
Which military organization commands during a space
conflict if a U.S. or allied partner’s satellite is attacked?
According to the Department of Defense, the U.S. Space
Command is responsible for conducting operations in,
from, and to space in order to deter conflict and, if
necessary, defeat aggression, and defend U.S. vital
interests. Conversely, the U.S. Space Force is responsible
for organizing, training, and equipping troops (space
guardians) during peace time in order to present them to the
combatant commands (i.e., U.S. Space Command) during a
time of space conflict or war.
Treaties Aimed at Preventing Conflict
in Space
Several agreements were introduced in the 1960s and 1970s
that attempted to prevent nations from placing weapons in
space. The United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly
adopted a treaty in 1967 that formed the basis of
international space law. The Outer Space Treaty, or the
“Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in
the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the
Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,” was originally
considered under the Legal Subcommittee in 1966, and
agreed upon later that year by the General Assembly. The
original signatories were the Russian Federation, the United
Kingdom, and the United States of America. The treaty
went into force in October 1967, and 110 countries have
become parties to it. Other treaties and agreements that
focus on other aspects of outer space are depicted in Figure
1.
