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Deblois, Bruce M., Jeremy C. Marwell et al. "Star-Crossed." IEEE Spectrum. (March 2005). [ 4 quotes ]
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Conventional deterrence can deter attacks on U.S. space assets
Even without space weapons, the United States could respond to an attack on its satellites with its unmatched terrestrial military capabilities. Adversaries would expect a heavy toll to be exacted as a result of any attack on U.S. satellites; that expectation alone would almost certainly suffice to deter any such attack.
Deblois, Bruce M., Jeremy C. Marwell et al. "Star-Crossed." IEEE Spectrum. (March 2005). [ 4 quotes ]
Space-based kinetic weapons waste too much energy, conventional strike options are more efficient
For attacking hardened or deeply buried targets, the long rods would
not outperform existing missiles equipped with conventional
penetrating warheads. That's because the physics of high-velocity
impacts limits the penetration depth; basically, too much energy at
impact causes the projectile to distribute its energy laterally rather
than vertically. ( More ... )
Deblois, Bruce M., Jeremy C. Marwell et al. "Star-Crossed." IEEE Spectrum. (March 2005). [ 4 quotes ]
The Common Aerospace Vehicle (CAV) would allow global strategic strike from space
Conventional warheads delivered from space are yet another candidate
for the space weapons arsenal. (A conventional intercontinental
ballistic missile, or ICBM, which also delivers bombs from above,
spends relatively little time in space during its trajectory and is
not a space weapon.) One proposal for delivering large quantities of
conventional explosives is the Common Aero Vehicle (CAV), a robotic
hypersonic aircraft much like a miniature space shuttle. Championed by
the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,
the Pentagon's entrepreneurial R&D wing, based in Arlington, Va., the
CAV would be launched into orbit by a land-based missile, aircraft, or
some as-yet-undeveloped military space plane. To attack, a CAV would
come down from orbit, reenter Earth's atmosphere, and maneuver to its
target at speeds as high as Mach 25. Like the ICBM, the CAV would have
one political edge over conventional aircraft: because the vehicle
would reenter sovereign airspace only over the target country, the
attacker would need no permission to fly over other countries.
Deblois, Bruce M., Jeremy C. Marwell et al. "Star-Crossed." IEEE Spectrum. (March 2005). [ 4 quotes ]
Strategic space-based laser for force projection still a viable concept
The most widely discussed directed-energy weapon is the space-based laser (SBL), an orbiting system that would use powerful lasers with large mirrors to focus energy on a selected target on Earth, producing damaging or destructive levels of heat. Over the past decade, the Pentagon has spent roughly US $750 million on SBL research, funded primarily by the Air Force and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (now the Missile Defense Agency). Various components have been tested on the ground and in the lab, including a megawatt-class chemical laser and the apparatus for pointing and controlling the beam, but the full system has yet to be tested in orbit. Although the U.S. Congress suspended funding in 2003 and called for a review of the program, the concept remains very much alive.
Deblois, Bruce M., Jeremy C. Marwell et al. "Star-Crossed." IEEE Spectrum. (March 2005). [ 4 quotes ]