BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE:
THE RETURN OF STAR WARS
The Nuclearization and Weaponization of Space
DURING THE REAGAN/BUSH YEARS, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) was funded at over $3 billion per year. Following his election, President Clinton declared that Star Wars was dead. In place of SDI, Clinton created the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) program and moved the Star Wars funding into BMD. To date, over $120 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars has been wasted on space weapons development.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) is made up of two key components. The National Missile Defense (NMD) is the program to "protect" the North American continent from attack by so-called "rogue" nations. Once deployed, over 100 interceptors will be located in Alaska and/or North Dakota. The second program now underway is Theater Missile Defense (TMD). TMD is intended to protect troops on the battlefield from missile attacks. The Army and Navy are each running testing programs for the TMD system. The Army's program, called THAAD, based at White Sands in New Mexico, has recently had two successful tests after a string of six failures. (A top Pentagon official has called the two recent successful THAAD tests "highly scripted.") The Navy program tests the theater missiles from ships and is competing to be the premier supplier of TMD launching for the Pentagon. Since there is only money for one TMO system, a decision will have to be made on either the Army or Navy system.
June 2000
BMD Deployment Decision
IN JUNE, 2000, after receiving a recommendation from a Pentagon panel, President Clinton is expected to give the Pentagon the final go-ahead to begin deployment of the BMD system. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and TRW now hold a joint contract to build space-based lasers that would be the follow-on technology to BMD. The Pentagon is also developing anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons that would be used to "knock out" competitors' satellites in space. The deployment of BMD will violate the ABM Treaty of 1972 and the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty. The US has already begun talks with Russia in hopes of "renegotiating" the ABM Treaty. The Clinton administration is offering to build the Russians a new missile tracking radar facility if they will "consent" to US BMD deployment. With the recent rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and now movement toward Star Wars, the peace movement must react strongly and quickly.
BMD Offense or Defense?
THE US SELLS THE BMD system as "defensive." The Space Command, committed to space "control and domination," has other plans. BMD is truly a Trojan horse, a way to get public support for the deployment of offensive weapons in space. Gen. Lester Lyles, Vice-Chief of Staff of the Air Force, recently stated, "Space control and all of its capabilities and ramifications, I think, are going to grow exponentially.... Ultimately, you can see the Air Force deploying systems that can deny space capabilities to our enemies. Systems like the Space-Based Laser, which we are currently trying to develop and demonstrate...."
Will BMD Work?
BMD PROPONENTS are trying to create hysteria by claiming that "rogue" states are poised to attack the United States with nuclear warheads. They name North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and China as likely suspects. It seems unlikely that any "enemy" would be foolish enough to launch a nuclear strike at the US considering that the attacking nation could be overwhelmed in return by massive US military power. The more likely scenario for an attack by a "rogue" state would be a suitcase or truck bomb--something that the expensive BMD system could not prevent. There are also many technical means to fool a BMD system, including using decoy missiles or simply inundating it with enough incoming missiles to make it useless. The best defense for the US is to negotiate international treaties limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Is NASA Involved inBMD?
YES. There is growing evidence that many of NASA's so-called "civilian" missions are involved in running Star Wars tests for the Pentagon. One example is the Deep Space Program Science Experiment (DSPSE), the first of a series of technology demonstrations jointly sponsored by the BMD and NASA. Launched in early 1994, its principal objective was to test Star Wars sensors and component technologies for the next generation of Pentagon spacecraft. NASA told the public that the mission's purpose was to map the surface of the Moon. We will see more and more of these "dual use" missions as the Pentagon takes over the space program.
Russia and China have asked the UN Commission on Disarmament to create an ad hoc committee in order to negotiate a global ban on weapons in space. The US has refused to participate in such talks. Neither Russia nor China can afford to enter a dangerous and expensive space arms race. On November 1, 1999, they joined 138 other countries at the UN to pass a resolution of the General Assembly calling for the "Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space." The US and Israel abstained on the vote; not a single nation opposed the resolution. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Commission on Disarmament on January 26, 1999, that space must be kept "as a weapons-free environment."
How Does Nuclear Power
Fit into Star Wars?
Weapons in space will require enormous amounts of power. Such weapons will likely be nuclear-powered. One Air Force study entitled "New World Vistas: Air & Space Power for the 21st Century," states: "A natural technology to enable high power is nuclear power in space. Setting the emotional issues of nuclear power aside, this technology offers a viable alternative for large amounts of power in space."
The United States military is seeking-in the words of the Space Command--to "control space" and the Earth below. The US plans are explicitly laid out in various US government documents. One such Space Command document, Vision for 2020, compares the US effort to control space and the Earth to how centuries ago "nations built navies to protect and enhance their commercial interests" by ruling the seas. Gen. Joseph Ashy, former Commander-in-Chief of the US Space Command, has said, "It's politically sensitive, but it's going to happen. Some people don't want to hear this, and it sure isn't in vogue, but--absolutely--we're going to fight in space. We're going to fight from space, and we're going to fight into space."
What You Can Do
1. Learn more about this issue and how local institutions in your community (military, aerospace corporations, academia, NASA) are involved in the nuclearization and weaponization of space.
2. Regularly check the Global Network website at: <www.globenet.free-online.co.uk>.
3. Organize people in your community to write letters, hold educational events, and protest on the space issue. Invite a speaker from the Global Network to your events.
4. Send representatives from your community to join with people from around the world. We will gather in Washington, DC, April 14-17, 2000, to call upon President Clinton and Congress to cancel plans to revitalize Star Wars. "The Global Network's Star Wars Revisited is an International Conference on Preventing an Arms Race in Space." The "Keep Space for Peace" lobby day will follow the conference.
KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE: Four Days of Protest Events, No BMD · No Star Wars, April 14-17, 2000, Washington, DC.
Join with activists from around the world as we protest plans to weaponize space.
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space <globalnet@mindspring.com>
P.O. Box 90083, Gainesville, FL 32607, (352) 337-9274