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The US just deployed a space weapon. Why · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The United States confirms for the first time that it's
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: deployed space weapons.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: China urges the US to stop preparing for war in space.
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  Speaker 3: My guess is probably something along the lines of lasers.
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  Speaker 4: I would be guessing that's an electronic warfare platform of
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  Speaker 4: some kind, it's likely. Or jamming abilities or spoofing abilities,
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  Speaker 4: possibly things like what we call co-orbs or weapons.
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  Speaker 3: We know that they have been preparing for what real-life
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  Speaker 3: Star Wars might look like, space warfighting.
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  Speaker 5: Warnings of an arms race in space should concern us all.
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  Speaker 4: So the US says it has weapons in space. What
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  Speaker 4: are they? Why are they there? And are they allowed
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  Speaker 4: to be there? And how is the rest of the
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  Speaker 4: world responding? Well, over the next 10 minutes, we're going
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  Speaker 4: to try to answer all of those questions. But first,
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  Speaker 4: let's start with the comments that kicked off all of this.
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  Speaker 4: The Air Force Secretary, Troy Mink, told a conference in
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  Speaker 4: Maryland that the US has on-orbit space control weapons capable
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  Speaker 4: of defending against hostile adversary action, adding they needed to
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  Speaker 4: be ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever
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  Speaker 4: they exist. Well, Russia responded by saying space should be
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  Speaker 4: kept free of any weapons, while China warned the US
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  Speaker 4: not to turn outer space into a battlefield.
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  Speaker 6: China has always been committed to the peaceful use of
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  Speaker 6: outer space and safeguarding security in outer space. We urge
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  Speaker 6: the US to stop its military build-up and war preparations
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  Speaker 6: in outer space and take concrete actions to safeguard global
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  Speaker 6: strategic stability.
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  Speaker 4: So what sort of weapons are up there? We don't
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  Speaker 4: know for sure. But Carrie Bingham is an aerospace security expert,
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  Speaker 4: and she explained some of the options.
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  Speaker 7: This is some sort of space weapon or weapons that
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  Speaker 7: are orbiting the Earth versus land-based weapons like a GPS
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  Speaker 7: or a Starlink jammer that we're seeing in Ukraine, or
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  Speaker 7: a missile that would be launched from the ground against
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  Speaker 7: a satellite. We won't know the specifics on how. But
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  Speaker 7: let's look at basic physics. There could be a range
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  Speaker 7: of options that are employed. Anything from a kinetic kill mechanism,
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  Speaker 7: say ramming a space weapon or a spacecraft into another spacecraft.
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  Speaker 7: Perhaps you release pellets or something non-kinetic and even what
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  Speaker 7: we call reversible. So a jammer where you're jamming a
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  Speaker 7: signal from one satellite to another satellite. you're using a
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  Speaker 7: laser weapon to affect another satellite. So there are several
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  Speaker 7: different modes. The thing I'd also, though, be sensitive to
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  Speaker 7: here is just a reminder of the physics of space.
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  Speaker 7: And so any weapon that is used, these planners, I believe,
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  Speaker 7: will be careful about the creation of debris.
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  Speaker 4: But why does the US have weapons in space? And
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  Speaker 4: why are they talking about it now? Well, to help
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  Speaker 4: answer those questions, I'm joined by our correspondent in Washington,
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  Speaker 4: Berndt de Boesemann. And Berndt, why does the U.S. want
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  Speaker 4: weapons in space?
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  Speaker 3: Well, although we don't know exactly what this on-orbit weapon
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  Speaker 3: that Secretary Mink was discussing actually.
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  Speaker 7: Does, U.S.
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  Speaker 3: Defense officials have for years now warned that other countries,
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  Speaker 3: particularly China and Russia, have been developing weapons that would
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  Speaker 3: essentially challenge U.S. dominance in space, specifically against satellite systems
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  Speaker 3: that are really crucial for U.S. command and control, that
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  Speaker 3: allow U.S. commanders to communicate with units in the field,
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  Speaker 3: whether those be aircraft or naval vessels or forces on
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  Speaker 3: the ground. And Secretary Mink said that such a system
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  Speaker 3: is required to safeguard against the system. In a subsequent statement,
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  Speaker 3: the Air Force said that both offensive and defensive weapons
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  Speaker 3: are necessary to safeguard U.S. possibilities in space. And this
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  Speaker 3: is something that the Trump administration has been eyeing for
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  Speaker 3: quite some time.
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  Speaker 4: Now, the Trump administration has said that space is a
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  Speaker 4: crucial part of its Golden Dome defense plan. Lots of
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  Speaker 4: people asking, Bernd, what is Golden Dome?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the Golden Dome is a project of President Trump's
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  Speaker 3: that he announced last year. The concern from the Trump
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  Speaker 3: administration was that existing defense systems that were essentially created
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  Speaker 3: in the Cold War to fight against the threat of
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  Speaker 3: ballistic and nuclear missiles coming from the Soviet Union, that
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  Speaker 3: that's very much outdated given advances in aerial threats and
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  Speaker 3: missile technology. So President Trump has announced a system costing
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  Speaker 3: more than $ 350 billion that essentially will combine ground-based systems
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  Speaker 3: and space-based systems to defend against these new generation aerial threats. Now,
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  Speaker 3: part of that does include interceptor missiles that are based
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  Speaker 3: in space that would essentially be used to attempt to
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  Speaker 3: knock out ballistic missiles in orbit before they fall back
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  Speaker 3: into North America.
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  Speaker 4: Now, of course, we've been sending people and spacecraft into
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  Speaker 4: orbit for decades, but why has that so far remained peaceful? Well,
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  Speaker 4: during the Cold War, the Outer Space Treaty was signed
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  Speaker 4: in 1967 by the UK, the USA and the USSR.
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  Speaker 4: This banned the placement of nuclear weapons in space or
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  Speaker 4: on the moon and the testing of weapons in space
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  Speaker 4: or on the moon. So what would happen if a
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  Speaker 4: country broke that treaty? Well, space lawyer Deepika Jayakodi explained.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing really stops any country from disobeying the Outer Space Treaty.
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  Speaker 2: In general, space is a special field. It is for everyone.
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  Speaker 2: So if someone disobeys a law, then they lose too.
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  Speaker 2: So this is the core principle that urges countries to
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  Speaker 2: behave in space.
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  Speaker 4: Now, back in 2019, President Trump launched the US Space
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  Speaker 4: Force as a way to protect American assets in space.
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  Speaker 4: It was the first new branch of the US military
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  Speaker 4: for more than 70 years. Well, let's go back to Berndt,
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  Speaker 4: because Berndt, what does the US Space Force actually do?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the Space Force, as you mentioned, was created by
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  Speaker 3: President Trump during his first administration. It's essentially, rather than
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  Speaker 3: sending people into space in any way, it's essentially taken
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  Speaker 3: ownership of U.S. military operations from space. Now, that includes
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  Speaker 3: tracking potential threats in space, such as those missiles I
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  Speaker 3: mentioned that could strike U.S. satellites, but also working with
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  Speaker 3: other government agencies to the U.S. Air Force and the
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  Speaker 3: National Reconnaissance Office, for example, to detect threats on Earth
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  Speaker 3: from outer space. For example, a satellite can tell within
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  Speaker 3: just a few milliseconds whether a ballistic missile has been
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  Speaker 3: launched on the other side of the world. Often in
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  Speaker 3: places like North Korea, for example, the Space Force and
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  Speaker 3: the National Reconnaissance Office would be the first to get
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  Speaker 3: that signature signal. of a launch on Earth and therefore
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  Speaker 3: could respond should there be a threat to the U.S.
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  Speaker 3: or its allies in the future. It's very much still
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  Speaker 3: in its infancy compared to the other service, but the
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  Speaker 3: Trump administration and President Trump in particular are very, very
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  Speaker 3: proud that the Space Force was created and have been
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  Speaker 3: giving it more responsibilities over U.S. national security policy.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you. Worth looking at what other countries are doing
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  Speaker 4: when it comes to space weapons. Do Russia and China
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  Speaker 4: have similar capabilities as the US? Well, Mikey Kay from
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  Speaker 4: the Security Brief explains.
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  Speaker 1: The rules that apply to space when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: military application are, unsurprisingly, not tightly defined. In 2007, China
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  Speaker 1: did launch a ballistic missile with what's called an anti-satellite
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  Speaker 1: device on it or an ASAT. China's aim was to
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  Speaker 1: destroy one of their own weather satellites, which it did successfully.
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  Speaker 1: The problem, however, was the ensuing debris that remained in
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  Speaker 1: orbit to the extent that the International Space Station or
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  Speaker 1: the ISS had to dodge a piece of that debris
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  Speaker 1: in November 2021. This kind of operation was replicated by
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  Speaker 1: Russia targeting one of its own satellites with similar consequences
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  Speaker 1: to the ISS. Now, speaking to military sources, they say
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  Speaker 1: that when it comes to space, it is better to
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  Speaker 1: be in a position of competition rather than conflict, using
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  Speaker 1: a strategy of deterrence by denial, but also having the
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  Speaker 1: capability to conduct deterrence with what's called by punishment. They
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  Speaker 1: say there are two key capabilities, reversible, which is disabling
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  Speaker 1: using a pulse and creating no debris and or non-reversible,
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  Speaker 1: which is destroying the satellite. There are currently over 16,000
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  Speaker 1: active and operational satellites in the Earth's orbit, delivering communications, navigation,
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  Speaker 1: Earth monitoring, and military intelligence, for example. Now, Starlink operates
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  Speaker 1: roughly 11,000 of that contingent. So you can see that
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  Speaker 1: should there be any direct military confrontation in space causing
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  Speaker 1: large debris fields, it would highly likely incur significant disruption
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  Speaker 1: to the current satellite inventory in operation. One thing, to me,
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  Speaker 1: is obvious. The application of space for military use is
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  Speaker 1: on the rise. Until now, it has remained passive. Today,
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  Speaker 1: that looks like things have changed.
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  Speaker 4: Well, weapons in space may seem like a distant issue,
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  Speaker 4: but how could conflicts in space affect us here on Earth,
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  Speaker 4: and how concerned should we be? Here's our defence correspondent,
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  Speaker 4: Jonathan Beale.
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  Speaker 5: For most of us it should be concerning because we
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  Speaker 5: use space every day in the terms of communications, internet,
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  Speaker 5: banking transfers and there is the potential to take out satellites.
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  Speaker 5: I think when I went to US briefings about five
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  Speaker 5: years ago the emphasis was on the importance of the
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  Speaker 5: peaceful use of space and now I think everybody accepts
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  Speaker 5: that they need to defend what they have in space
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  Speaker 5: and remember there are about 18,000 satellites, functioning satellites in space.
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  Speaker 5: And they are taking steps, these big countries, so I'd
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  Speaker 5: say China, which is... as far as the US is concerned,
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  Speaker 5: the pacing challenge, Russia and now the US, to protect
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  Speaker 5: their own satellites, which they need for fighting wars on
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  Speaker 5: the ground.
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  Speaker 4: And that's all you need to know about the US
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  Speaker 4: deploying weapons in space.