For many nations, the opportunity to acquire space weapons is growing as technologies become available on a global basis. Several countries already have ongoing space programs designed to provide a high-leverage response to U.S. military power. Their incentives to deploy space weapons are extensive; such capabilities could threaten present and future U.S. dominance, both in space and in the terrestrial arena. Space-based weapons in the hands of hostile states constitute an asymmetric capability designed to undermine U.S. strengths, including not only American maritime power projection assets, but also vital space-based sensors and communications satellites. Unless the United States chooses to abandon its superpower status, continued access to space as well as a growing U.S. presence in space, based on advancing technologies, will remain indispensable to national security.

---

Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. Independent Working Group on Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century, 2007 Report. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, August 28, 2006. [ 13 quotes ] [ page 34 ]