Improving our Deterrence Posture in Space

From the beginning, space has been a contested domain and a warfighting domain. The first test of an anti-satellite weapon—the launch of a Bold Orion missile from a US bomber—occurred in 1959, just two years after Sputnik.

Throughout the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed and tested a variety of anti-satellite weapons capable of holding each other’s satellites at risk. Thankfully, none of these kinetic weapons were used in anger, but the threat was ever-present. What has changed is our confidence in the ability to deter attacks against our space systems…