ĭevelopment of orbital weaponry was largely halted after the entry into force of the Outer Space Treaty and the SALT II treaty. During World War II Nazi Germany was also developing plans for an orbital weapon called the Sun gun, an orbital mirror that would have been used to focus and weaponize beams of sunlight. Several orbital weaponry systems were designed by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. As of December 2022, there are no known operative orbital weapons systems, but several nations have deployed orbital surveillance networks to observe other nations or armed forces. Orbital weaponry is any weapon that is in orbit around a large body such as a planet or moon. The tests took place at Edwards Air Force Base. Although no real hardware was ever manufactured for deployment, the military did test the use of lasers mounted on Boeing 747s to destroy missiles in the 2000s, however these were discontinued due to practical limitations of keeping a constant fleet airborne near potential launch sites due to the lasers range limitations keeping a small number from being sufficient. When a missile launch was detected, the satellite would fire at the missile (or warheads) and destroy it. Other aspects included satellites in orbit carrying powerful laser weapons, plasma weapons, or particle beams. Some concepts of the system included Brilliant Pebbles, which were Kinetic Kill Vehicles, essentially small rockets launched from satellites toward their targets (a warhead, warhead bus, or even an upper stage of an ICBM). The defensive system was nicknamed Star Wars, after the movie, by its detractors. On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, a research program with a goal of developing a defensive system which would destroy enemy ICBMs. Main article: Strategic Defense Initiative In general, the use of explosive and kinetic kill systems is limited to relatively low altitudes due to space debris issues and so as to avoid leaving debris from launch in orbit. Multiple test firings have been done as part of recent Chinese and U.S test programs that involved destroying an orbiting satellite. A RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 anti-ballistic missile is launched from USS Shiloh, a US Navy Ticonderoga-class cruiser.Īnti-satellite weapons, which are primarily surface-to-space and air-to-space missiles, have been developed by the United States, the USSR/Russia, India and the People's Republic of China. Earth-to-space weapons The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. The Soviet uncrewed Polyus weapons platform was designed to be equipped with a megawatt carbon-dioxide laser and a self-defense cannon. This was the first and so far the only weapon to be fired in space. The Soviet Almaz secret military space station program was equipped with a fixed 23mm autocannon to prevent hostile interception or boarding by hostile forces. Space weapons are also a central theme in military science fiction and sci-fi video games. In the course of the militarisation of space, such weapons were developed mainly by the contesting superpowers during the Cold War, and some remain under development today. anti-satellite weapons), attack targets on the earth from space or disable missiles travelling through space. They include weapons that can attack space systems in orbit (i.e. Space weapons are weapons used in space warfare. JSTOR ( July 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī United States Space Command impression of a conceptual satellite-based directed-energy weapon used to precisely strike targets on Earth.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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