▲ US X-37B unmanned space plane, returning from its fourth mission, in 2017 [US Air Force].

GLOBAL AFFAIRS JOURNAL / Luis V. Pérez Gil

[10-page document. downloadin PDF]

INTRODUCTION

The militarization of space is a reality. The major powers have taken the step of putting satellites into orbit that can attack and destroy the space apparatus of the adversary or third States. The consequences for those who suffer these attacks can be catastrophic, because their communications, navigation and defense systems will be partially or totally disabled. This scenario raises, as in nuclear war, the possibility of a preemptive attack aimed at avoiding being in the hands of the adversary in an eventual war. The United States and Russia have the capability to carry out such actions, but the other powers do not want to lag behind. The rest are trying to follow the great powers, who dictate the rules of the system.

The great powers also compete in space to maintain their primacy in the global international system and try to ensure that, in the event of a confrontation, they can disable and destroy the adversary's command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, because without satellites their ability to defend themselves against the demolishing power of precision-guided weapons is reduced. From this follows the rule that whoever dominates space will dominate the Earth in a war.

This is one of the fundamental tenets of Friedman's work on power in international relations in this century, when he states that the wars of the future will be fought in space because adversaries will seek to destroy the space systems that allow them to select targets and the navigation and communications satellites to disable their warfare capabilities.

As a result, both the United States and Russia, as well as China, are financing major space programs and developing new technologies aimed at obtaining unconventional satellites and space planes, so that we can speak unequivocally of the militarization of space, as we shall see in the following sections.

But, before continuing, we must remember that there is a multilateral international treaty, called the Outer Space Treaty, initially signed by the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union on January 27, 1967, which establishes a series of limitations on operations in space. According to this treaty any country launching an object into space "shall retain jurisdiction and control over such object, as well as over all staff on it, while in space or on a celestial body" (article 8). It also states that any country "shall be manager internationally liable for damage caused to another State party (...) by such an object or its component parts on Earth, in airspace or outer space" (article 7). This means that any space satellite can approach a device of another country, follow it or make remote observations, but cannot alter or interrupt its operability in any way. It should be clarified that, although nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction are prohibited in space, there is no limitation on the installation of conventional weapons on space satellites. At the urging of Russia and China the United Nations General Assembly has been pushing since 2007 for a multilateral treaty project banning weapons in outer space, the use of force or the threat of use against space objects, but it has been systematically rejected by the United States.