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dawn of the Bush administration, the concept of full- spectrum dominance means that the US wishes to dominate a conflict at every level: control the Earth with conventional military forces; control the seas with the Navy; control the sky with the Air Force; and now control space with new technologies under development today. A bit later, in the "Strategic Master Plan FY06 and Beyond", the US Air Force Space Command stated: "While our ultimate goals are truly to ‘exploit’ space through SFE [space force enhancement] and SFA [space force application] missions, as with other mediums, we cannot fully ‘exploit’ that medium until we first ‘control’ it."¢ For an example of dual use, take Pearl Harbor's USS Lake Erie, a guided-missile cruiser which is armed with the Aegis missile defence system. The Aegis fires interceptors like the THAAD and has an impressive record knocking out dummy intercontinental ballistic missiles. In 2008, however, the USS Lake Erie and its Aegis obliterated a satellite as it orbited over Hawaii, littering low-Earth orbit for eternity unless cleaned up. The Pentagon claimed that its spy satellite had malfunctioned and needed to be taken out. The Aegis— which is the name of Zeus’ shield—has been installed on 18 US warships, giving the US the ability to attack nearly any target in orbit around the Earth. According to the Center for Defense Information (CDI), a Washington-based space weapons The Future of Warfare hink-tank, missile defence is the most The desire to build such weapons ates weapons program of all and put them into space is not just a ime: US$120 billion has been spent a 21st-century phenomenon. Since since 1983 when President Ronald Officially World War II and through the Cold Reagan called for an anti-missile . os War, both the US and the Soviet Union shield made public In have researched missiles, lasers and At the moment, the US Missile May 2000 at the satellites that could strike in space Defense Agency is working on 12 and be based in space or on Earth. separate programs, some of which are dawn of the Bush They were being designed, for ready to be deployed and can blow up administration, instance, to shoot down satellites or argets in space, e.g., the THAAD, or make them go deaf, dumb and blind. he Terminal High Altitude Area the concept of In fact, in 1985, the US in a test pefense (ore more acta one | fullspectrum | downed» sareline wha iss weapons in part two of this dominance means Such an event wouldn't occur eature). that the US wishes again until 2007, when the Chinese obliterated one of its own satellites with a ground- based missile. Members of Congress all of a sudden were bellowing about how vulnerable US satellites are. A year later, the US countered the Chinese when the USS Lake Erie downed the malfunctioning spy Nevertheless, the Pentagon insists that it is not researching space weapons: it's researching missile defence. Thus there's no need for a space weapons treaty. Gagnon said, "Don't play the fool". The Pentagon has spent $120 billion (that's just the unclassified spending) and countless man- hours on a weapons program that satellite. hasn't truly produced anything of Both shoot-downs foreshadow value to the civilian or the warrior on the battlefield. the future of war. To win at modern warfare, you need to Another reason why missile defence is a Trojan Horse _ have eyes and ears constantly circling the globe. is because the Pentagon has nothing to show for all the —_ Battlefield communication, location of forces, spying, money it's spent, said Gagnon. What it's getting for terrain recon, GPS and guiding missiles to their target spending $120 billion is "dual use" technology, he noted. | from hundreds of miles away are just some combat Instead of taxpayers’ dollars being put into building new _ functions powered by satellites within orbit around the to dominate a conflict at every level... roads and bridges and rehabbing countless schools, they —_ Earth. "Information superiority" is what it's called. The are being given to the Pentagon to create an arsenal of | Pentagon's mantra is: it's not that you need to have space weapons, he said. satellites to win a war, you have to have satellites to win a The CDI leans politically to the left, and, like Gagnon, | war. So if one warring side had the ability to make some of its arms-control experts also support the dual- another side—especially the US—go both blind and use hypothesis for missile defence. "So many missile deaf, they would do it—and they're trying, especially defensive capabilities have inherent, offensive Russia and China. applications as well," said CDI director Theresa Hitchens If China one day were to want back its "lost province" in acomment for my book.’ (known to us as Taiwan), the first thing it might do would Officially made public in May 2000 at the administration, the concept of US level... 14 * NEXUS APRIL - MAY 2011 dawn of the Bush full-spectrum dominance means that the US wishes to dominate a conflict at every www.nexusmagazine.com