A space weapons race is not the answer for America - by Michael O'Hanlon
China's recent test of an anti-satellite weapon that pulverised an old weather satellite was a big mistake. The move makes a mockery of China's long-standing opposition to such capabilities in the hands of other powers. More significantly, it threatens to undermine an uneasy moratorium on the development of space weapons that has largely endured since the end of the cold war. Worrying though this is, the US must not overreact. Rushing into a space weapons competition would not serve American strategic interests. But neither are sweeping controls on the military uses of space plausible or desirable.
The right policy for the US in space remains hedging and going slow. Extreme solutions can be more rhetorically appealing. But they fail to address the technical and strategic realities of the day and should not be adopted. That said, a few more such Chinese tests and we may have little choice.
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