January 12, 2005 :: Defense News :: News
Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Israel’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, recently called for his nation to expand its sea and space-based defenses against a number of forms of attack, reports Defense News. At a December 22 symposium, he urged in particular anti-satellite missiles, satellite-attacking lasers, and ship-based missiles. Israel’s “lack of ground territory—and our obligation to defend the homeland from attack—drives the need to develop a strategic envelope of air, sea and space forces not only for defense, but for attack.”
Steinitz’s proposals will not be well received by those arms controllers theologically opposed to the weaponization of space, but are in fact quite well founded. The importance of space in warfare has already been seen in the use of GPS and other satellite assets. In a war with another space-capable power, such as China, anti-satellite weapons would, it is plausible, be widely used on both sides. The defense of our assets in space is a simple necessity, and the basing of missile defense interceptors in space is simply essential to any effective strategic missile defense. (Article)
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