Anti Satellite Weapons Treaty

The first successful us interception test of a space took place in.

Anti satellite weapons treaty. This article s objective is to examine the international legality of these anti satellite weapons in light of the outer space treaty of. The same satellite cosmos 2543 was seen in 2019 approaching a classified u s. Anti satellite weapons deterrence and sino american space relations michael krepon julia ompson editors september 2013. Anti satellite weapons asats the following is a brief introduction for the non space weapons expert by a layperson gleaned primarily from university level library and internet resources and will provide a brief history of negotiated treaties describe the early u s.

The capacity to produce such weapons exists since the cold war. The result are attacks that. Anti satellite weapons are useful not only for crippling the ability of military adversaries to operate on the battlefield they also threaten civilian uses of space. By the 1980s both the united states and the soviet union had performed anti satellite missile tests all of them arguably in technical violation of a 1967 un treaty banning such activities.

The initial soviet asat projects go back to the early 60s. To the outer space treaty their second major codi ed constraint of their strategic competition a er an agreement four years earlier to stop testing nuclear weapons in. Several nations possess operational asat systems. Anti satellite weapons asat are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic military purposes.

Weapon could be designed to destroy satellites to neutralize or in tercept intercontinental or submarine launched ballistic missiles and to attack earthly targets. Although no asat system has yet been utilised in warfare a few nations have shot down their own satellites to demonstrate their asat capabilities in a show of force only the united states russia china and india. The bigger concern however is that the use of destructive anti satellite weapons in more typical orbits can create dangerous amounts of persistent space debris that can threaten the secure use. Space command has caught a russian satellite in what appears to be an anti satellite weapon test.