Also see below:     
India to Set Up Aerospace Defence Command    [

    Debris of Superpower Pride Endangers Peace in Space
    By J. Sri Raman
    t r u t h o u t | Columnist

    Monday 29 January 2007

    Calculations of the damage done in space by China's anti-satellite missile (ASAT) test of January 11 continue. What needs to be stressed far more is the serious setback the test can spell for terrestrial efforts to assure humanity of an outer space free from weapons and wars.

    According to one estimate, the test broke the target Chinese satellite into about 800 pieces measuring four-plus inches wide and millions of smaller splinters. The floating debris will pose a potential threat for a considerable time to other satellites, on which so much of life on terra firma depends today. Debris left by a similar ASAT test by the US in September 1985 needed 17 long years to be taken out of orbit.

    That is bad enough, with 175 to 200 commercial satellites currently in operation in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), representing a total investment (both public and private) of $120 billion. What makes it worse is the post-test debris of power politics that poses a dramatically heightened danger to peace in space.

    Endangered is the decades-long international exercise aimed at "prevention of an arms race in outer space," or PAROS in the parlance of the United Nations bureaucracy, which has kept alive at least dim hopes of an advance from the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. The treaty barred the signatory states from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction into Earth's orbit, as well as installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to "otherwise station them in outer space." The treaty, however, did not expressly prohibit the placement or use of other weapons in orbit, so long as they were claimed to be "for peaceful purposes."

    It was the common stand of virtually the entire non-US world, including China, for a more comprehensive treaty that led to a series of PAROS conferences under UN auspices. Countries that sought to negotiate a new treaty have argued against continued weaponization and militarization of space. Withdrawal of the US from the Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABM) Treaty, they pointed out, strengthened the case for such a treaty, as the scrapped pact envisaged restraints on space weapons.

    Theoretically, the recent test could either help or hamper the campaign for a PAROS treaty. The test, a typical Chinese puzzle, has elicited conflicting interpretations and conclusions, especially in the US. The George Bush administration is called upon to choose between two possible responses to the test. Given the administration's track record, chances of its making the right choice would seem to be nearly ruled out.

    The main expert interpretation of the test in its immediate wake saw it as a ploy to break the deadlock on PAROS. The timing of the test - just before the current Conference on Disarmament in Geneva - has been noted.

    Michael Krepon of the Henry L. Stimson Center, said that the test "blows a hole through the Bush administration reasoning behind not talking to anybody about space arms control - that there is no space arms race. It looks like there is one at this point". He added: "The Chinese are telling the Pentagon that they don't own space: 'We can play this game, too, and we can play it dirtier than you.'"

    Democratic Representative Edward J. Markey said the same thing in different words: "American satellites are the soft underbelly of our national security, and it is urgent that President Bush move to guarantee their protection by initiating an international agreement to ban the development, testing and deployment of space weapons and anti-satellite systems."

    Many experts bemoaned the fact that, on the arrogant presumption of an unbeatable lead in the space arms race, the US under Bush had been spurning all opportunities for regulating the use of space as the heritage of all humanity. The Center for Defense Information noted: "The latest National Space Policy (NSP) staunchly defends 'unhindered' access to space for the United States, while the previous policy pushed for access to space for all countries. The new NSP also reveals a deep distrust of international institutions that does not bode well for international cooperation on space-related matters."

    Veteran journalist and peace activist Karl Grossman made the point about superpower arrogance on issues of space, when he recalled his keynote address at the PAROS conference of 1999. Before the vote on the subject, which the US vetoed, an official of the country's delegation told Grossman that "we can project power from space." As for "other nations responding in kind," he said the US military had done analyses and determined China is '30 years behind' in competing with the US militarily in space."

    Not all experts agreed, however. Kevin Pollpeter, a China specialist with the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, saw proof of a civil-military dichotomy in the delayed announcement of the test. He said that "the delayed response from the Chinese government may indicate that even President Hu Jintao, who also serves as the head of the Central Military Commission, did not know about the test." Pollpeter asserted that "the test should be viewed in a more military rather than a diplomatic context."

    Such a view does not warrant a softening of the official US stance. Music to the establishment's ears must have been the comment of Marshall Institute's president Jeff Kueter: "The Chinese ASAT test should 'boost' the prospects of space-based missile defense." He added: "If the international community is truly worried about the debris-generating effects of ASAT weapons, then it ought to embrace - indeed demand - development and deployment of boost-phase missile defenses capable of intercepting ASAT missiles long before they reach their satellite targets."

    It is not hard to see which of the viewpoints the Bush administration is likely to veer towards - and which viewpoint the peace movement should back with popular mobilization.

    Go to Original

    India to Set Up Aerospace Defence Command
    Agence France Presse

    Sunday 28 January 2007

    India will set up an aerospace defence command to shield itself against possible attacks from outer space, officials said.

    The announcement came three days after Russia backed India's response to a Chinese satellite-destroying weapons test that demanded a "weapons free outer space."

    Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Shashi Tyagi said it was in the process of establishing an aerospace defence command "to exploit outer space," the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.

    "As the reach of our airforce is expanding it has become extremely important that we exploit space and for it you need space assets," Tyagi told reporters in the western city of Gandhinagar.

    "We are an aerospace power having trans-oceanic reach and we have started training a core group of people for the aerospace command," the air chief marshall said without specifying a time-frame for the ambitious project.

    Tyagi said IAF would seek civilian help for the project.

    "We will take help of ISRO (Indian Space Research organisation) for the aerospace command but it will have distinct features as it is a military command," he said.

    Military sources said the IAF would try and replicate the North American Aerospace Defence Command set up by the United States and Canada which detects and tracks threatening man-made objects in outer space.

    The Indian command's charter will also include ensuring air sovereignty and air defence, they said.

    "The aerospace command will be an integration of various components of the airforce, Indian satellites, radars, communications systems, fighter aircraft and helicopters," PTI quoted an unnamed airforce official as saying.

    The IAF, the world's fourth largest with around 800 combat jets and some 400 support aircraft, plans to establish air superiority in Asia with the acquisition of 126 latest war jets at a cost of some seven billion dollars.

    Tyagi said the airforce was extending its strategic reach.

    "The basic role of the IAF to protect airspace and borders of the country is still there, but we have to protect our global interests. We plan to have strategic reach to meet our needs of new strategic boundaries.

    "We have thus drawn the roadmap for the transformation of the IAF and we are on the right track," he added.

    The IAF has developed air-launched cruise missile systems. It also has a key role in the deployment of India's nuclear arms arsenal.

    China, which fought a bitter border war with India in 1962, destroyed an orbiting satellite this month using a ballistic missile - making it the third country after Russia and the US with such capabilities.

    The successful splashdown of an Indian capsule last week into the Indian Ocean signalled the country's growing reach into outer space and its obsession for military spin-offs from such projects.