protecting satellites

    The current Air Force Space Command already tracks all of the satellites in orbit to make sure that they don’t collide with each other or with space debris. The Space Command notifies owners of satellites to reposition their satellites to avoid anticipated impacts.

    The U.S. military is believed to already be working on active measures to protect satellites, possibly including jamming control signals of enemy space weapons, using lasers to blind the sensors of enemy threats, and using kinetic objects (especially missiles or other satellites) to destroy enemy threats.

    The U.S. Air Force’s top secret X-37B aircraft has orbitted the Earth for extended time periods. The military purpose is top secret. Leading guesses include surveillance and the ability to attack or protect satellites.

    A proposed Defense Authorization Act from Congress would require the Department of Defense to come up with a “space warfighting policy” and some lawmakers want Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defense system or other similar ability to destroy ballistic missiles from space.

    Repeat This passage directly applies to this section and is a repeated quotation from Joint Publication 3-14, Space Operations, 10 April 2018:

    c. DSC. DSC operations consist of all active and passive measures taken to protect friendly space capabilities from attack, interference, or unintentional hazards. DSC safeguards assets from unintentional hazards such as direct or indirect attack, space debris, radio frequency interference, and naturally occurring phenomenon such as radiation. DSC measures can apply to defense of any segment of a space system—space, link, or ground.

        (1) Successful DSC operations include the ability to preempt and suppress attacks. DSC capabilities should be integrated with SSA elements that provide the ability to detect, characterize, and attribute an attack to an enemy. A robust DSC capability influences enemies’ perceptions of US space capabilities and makes them less confident of success in interfering with those capabilities.

        (2) DSC contributes to space deterrence by employing a variety of measures that help assure the use of space and, consistent with the inherent right of self-defense, defend our space systems and contribute to the defense of allied/partner space systems.

        (3) Active space defense consists of those actions taken to neutralize imminent space control threats to friendly space forces and space capabilities.

        (4) Passive space defense consists of all measures (except active space defense measures) taken to minimize the effectiveness of on-orbit and terrestrial threats to friendly space forces and friendly space capabilities. Passive space defense measures could include camouflage, concealment, and deception; evasion; dispersal of space systems; and hardening of space system links and nodes.

—Joint Publication 3-14, Space Operations, 10 April 2018

table of contents

0. fans of space
1. Space Force
2. response to criticism of Space Force
3. space situational awareness
4. space control
5. protecting satellites
6. space debris
7. navigation warfare
8. surveillance
9. satellite communications
10. environmental monitoring
11. missile warning
12. nuclear detonation detection
13. drones
14. spacelift
15. space academy
16. spaceborne military base
17. asteroid mining
18. disaster relief
19. first contact
20. space warfare
21. spaceborne energy
22. spaceborne food
23. orbital ring
24. moon base
25. colonizing the solar system
26. megastructures
27. T O & E
28. Pence speech
29. history
30. space news