Prelude to Rumsfeld II’: Center Issues Summary of

(Washington, D.C.): On Thursday, a blue-ribbon, congressionally-mandated commission chaired by Secretary of Defense-designate Donald Rumsfeld will release a major new report concerning the need for U.S. control of outer space — and how it can most effectively be acquired and maintained. On the eve of this strategically momentous development, the Center for Security Policy released a nineteen-page summary of a High- Level Roundtable Discussion it convened to address the subject on 11 December 2000.

The Roundtable — entitled “Space Power: What are the Stakes, What Will it Take?” — brought together over eighty past and present senior military officers, executive branch officials, industry leaders, members of the press and congressional staff members. The Roundtable featured important contributions by its lead discussants: Senator Bob Smith (R- NH), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Major General Brian Arnold, USAF, Director, Space and Nuclear Deterrence, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition; Dr. Lawrence Gershwin, National Intelligence Officer for Space; Richard Fisher, Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation; Dr. Marty Faga, former Director of the National Reconnaissance Office; Ambassador Henry Cooper, former Director, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization; Dr. James Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense and Energy, and Director of Central Intelligence; and General Charles Horner, USAF (Ret.), former Commander, U.S. Space Command, and a member of Secretary Rumsfeld’s Commission on National Security Space Management and Organization.

China’s Ambitious Bid for Space Control

Particularly noteworthy is the section of the summary that addressed emerging threats to U.S. access to and/or use of space. Just as the North Koreans in 1998 confirmed the findings of the first Rumsfeld Commission concerning the proliferation of long-range missiles with their launch of a three-stage rocket, China appears poised to validate the recommendations offered in the course of the Center’s Roundtable — and those expected to emanate from the Rumsfeld II Commission.

According to a Hong Kong newspaper, Sing Tao Jih Pao, Communist China has completed ground tests of “an advanced anti-satellite weapon called parasitic satellite’ [which] will be deployed on an experimental basis and enter the stage of space test in the near future.” The paper’s January 5 edition cites “well-informed sources” as saying that:

…To ensure winning in a future high-tech war, China’s military has been quietly working hard to develop asymmetrical combat capability so that it will become capable of completely paralyzing the enemy’s fighting system when necessary by “attacking selected vital points” in the enemy’s key areas. The development of the reliable anti-satellite “parasitic satellite” is an important part of the efforts in this regard.

It is reported that the “parasitic satellite” is a micro-satellite which can be launched to stick to an enemy satellite; and in time of war, it will jam or destroy the enemy satellite according to the command it receives. As a new-concept anti-satellite weapon, the parasitic satellite’ can control or attack many types of satellite, including low-orbit, medium-orbit and high-orbit satellites, both military and civilian satellites, single satellite, and constellated satellites. An enemy satellite, once locked on by “parasitic satellite,” cannot escape being paralyzed or destroyed instantaneously in time of war, no matter how sophisticated it is, and no matter whether it is a communications satellite, early-warning satellite, navigational satellite, reconnaissance satellite, radar electronics jamming satellite, or even space station or space-based laser gun.”

While no effort was made to forge a consensus on the part of the participants in the High-Level Roundtable, the sentiment among the experts, scientists, military personnel and others present seemed to be that the United States can no longer afford to ignore the growing capability of potential adversaries to exploit the vulnerability arising from the dependence of both America’s military and civilian economy on unencumbered access to and use of outer space. There appeared to be a nearly universally shared hope, moreover, that the Rumsfeld II Commission will catalyze fresh thinking on the part of the new Bush-Cheney Administration about the need for space power — and give rise to an urgent, reorganized, disciplined and far more energetic effort to obtain and exercise it.

View summary of the Space Power Roundtable Discussion (PDF)