A space supremacy to be countered

Is the U.S. planning to “unleash a space war”?

Is the U.S. planning to “unleash a space war”? asked the Rodong Sinmun (North Korea) in an editorial. It recently launched a small spacecraft from Florida with a classified mission that the U.S. Air Force claims is related to research, but which independent analysts say is “designed to destroy the satellites of other countries.” The U.S., of course, was at the forefront of nations criticizing North Korea for our recent launch of a peaceful satellite. Yet not weeks later, it was “shooting off space weapons helter-skelter in violation of international space law.”

And the Americans show no sign of stopping, said Hu Yumin in the China Daily. Even as it seeks to cut defense spending overall, the U.S. is ramping up funding for space weapons. It has just allocated more money to the Prompt Global Strike program, which is intended to deliver a decisive, non-nuclear strike anywhere in the world. And it is now planning to combine that program with space and anti-missile technologies “to form an integrated defense system, which could render other countries’ strategic weapons, including nuclear arms, almost useless.”

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