US Looks to Weaponizing Space

U.S. efforts to deploy weapons in space face major technical, budgetary and physical barriers, opponents warned this week, but military planners still have high hopes for the "high ground" of future wars.

Everett Dolman, a professor at the Air Force's School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, said he expected the White House to issue a new space policy next month that would underscore the military's determination to protect its existing space assets and maintain dominance of outer space.
Space was essential to how the U.S. military fights wars, Dolman said, noting that satellites already helped relay communications among troops, provided intelligence and targeting data, and guided bombs to their destinations.
"We've crossed the threshold and we simply cannot step back," Dolman, a proponent of space weapons, told Reuters at a two-day Nuclear Policy Research Institute conference.
Dolman said the critical question was not whether the United States should weaponize space, but whether it could afford to allow other states to get a jump-start in this area.