A Call For A US ASAT Capability: Avoiding A Black Hole In Our Defense Posture

(Washington, D.C.): The Center for Security Policy today issued a comprehensive report urging immediate action to deal with what former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci has called "the single most serious deficiency in our military posture."

The report, entitled Toward a U.S. Anti-Satellite Capability: Correcting America’s "Most Serious Military Deficiency" decries the complete absence of any American capability to deter attacks on vital U.S. satellites by threatening in-kind retaliation. It notes that the Soviet potential for conducting such attacks is formidable and growing.

Toward a U.S. Anti-Satellite Capability also describes the serious threat posed to American and allied terrestrial forces by space-based Soviet sensors and targetting assets. It suggests that the fate of future conflicts could be determined by whether such systems can operate in the future — as they do today — with impunity.

The report calls for the rejection of any congressional restrictions on the U.S. test program and details the insoluble problems inherent in — and completely illusory nature of — potential arms control limitations schemes advocated as an alternative to U.S. ASAT development by opponents of the U.S. program.

In releasing the report, the Center’s Director, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. said, "This study dramatically reveals the serious risks inherent in our present, vulnerable situation. It also exposes two instances of outright Soviet disinformation about their ASAT capabilities — both of which were aimed at members of the United States Congress."

Gaffney observed that, "Such behavior on the part of the Soviet Union should shatter any lingering illusions that arms control can substitute for an effective U.S. ASAT capability. Should any still persist, however, this report should put them to rest with its brief but pointed description of the insurmountable problems defining limitations that would be effective, verifiable and in the U.S. interest."