Space Is Fast Replacing Land As The Arena For Conflict

Forget the traditional battlegrounds of land, sea and air. Rapid developments in technology and our reliance on satellites for every thing from communication to navigation are pushing conflicts into a new arena: outer space

- Dr Stuart Clark

While addressing members of the US military at the White House recently, Donald Trump spoke of his desire to create a sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces – one dedicated to conflicts in space. “I was saying it the other day, because we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space – maybe we need a new force, we’ll call it the Space Force,” he said.

The comments may have drawn scepticism from some quarters, but many experts believe space war is indeed coming. According to the narrative, whatever conflicts start on Earth are going to quickly move into space. From there it’s easy to conjure up images of laser guns, exploding satellites and rockets arcing around Earth to take out orbiting targets. Better up there than down here, you may think. But dig deeper and the reality is very different and ultimately much more frightening. In fact, according to how you define space war, there’s an argument that says it’s already taking place.

“Unless you’re very narrowly defining space warfare as blowing up satellites and shooting lasers, there are elements of space warfare that date back to the Gulf War in 1991,” says Prof Joan JohnsonFreese, at the US Naval War College, Rhode Island.

During that war, the GPS satellite navigation system allowed the Americanled coalition to make a fast, accurate run across the Kuwaiti desert to outflank the invading Iraqi forces and ensure victory. Fast-forward to today and although the superpowers aren’t in open conflict with one another, they’re already testing each other’s space capabilities. In 2014, Chinese hackers broke into the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather and satellite systems. Russian cyber warriors have also hacked satellite transmissions. And it’s a sure bet the US has done the same back.