Space weapon

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(Redirected from
Space-based weapon
)
A United States Space Command impression of a conceptual satellite-based directed-energy weapon used to precisely strike targets on Earth

Space weapons are weapons used in space warfare. They include weapons that can attack space systems in orbit (i.e. anti-satellite weapons), attack targets on the earth from space or disable missiles travelling through space. In the course of the militarisation of space, such weapons were developed mainly by the contesting superpowers during the Cold War, and some remain under development today. Space weapons are also a central theme in military science fiction and sci-fi video games.

Space-to-space weapons

The Soviet

better source needed
]

The Soviet uncrewed

carbon-dioxide laser and a self-defense cannon.[3]

Earth-to-space weapons

Ticonderoga-class cruiser
.

USSR
/Russia, India and the People's Republic of China. Multiple test firings have been done as part of recent Chinese and U.S test programs that involved destroying an orbiting satellite. In general, the use of explosive and kinetic kill systems is limited to relatively low altitudes due to space debris issues and so as to avoid leaving debris from launch in orbit.

Strategic Defense Initiative

Main article: Strategic Defense Initiative

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, a research program with a goal of developing a defensive system which would destroy enemy ICBMs. The defensive system was nicknamed Star Wars, after the movie, by its detractors. Some concepts of the system included

plasma weapons, or particle beams. When a missile launch was detected, the satellite would fire at the missile (or warheads) and destroy it. Although no real hardware was ever manufactured for deployment, the military did test the use of lasers mounted on Boeing 747s to destroy missiles in the 2000s, however these were discontinued due to practical limitations of keeping a constant fleet airborne near potential launch sites due to the lasers range limitations keeping a small number from being sufficient. The tests took place at Edwards Air Force Base.[citation needed
]

Space-to-Earth weapons

Orbital weaponry

Silbervogel: Nazi Germany space weapon project.

Orbital weaponry is any weapon that is in orbit around a large body such as a planet or moon. As of December 2022, there are no known operative orbital weapons systems, but several nations have deployed orbital surveillance networks to observe other nations or armed forces. Several orbital weaponry systems were designed by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. During World War II Nazi Germany was also developing plans for an orbital weapon called the Sun gun, an orbital mirror that would have been used to focus and weaponize beams of sunlight.[4]

Development of orbital weaponry was largely halted after the entry into force of the

Space Preservation Treaty
which would ban the placement of any weaponry in outer space.

Orbital bombardment

See also: Kinetic bombardment

Orbital bombardment is the act of attacking targets on a planet, moon or other astronomical object from orbit around the object, rather than from an aircraft, or a platform beyond orbit. It has been proposed as a means of attack for several weapons systems concepts, including kinetic bombardment and as a nuclear delivery system.

During the

weapons of mass destruction
in such a partial orbit.

Orbital bombardment systems with conventional warheads are permitted under the terms of

SALT II. Some of the proposed systems rely on large tungsten carbide/uranium cermet rods dropped from orbit and depend on kinetic energy, rather than explosives, but their mass makes them prohibitively difficult to transport to orbit.[5]

As of 2020 the only true orbital bombardment in history has been executed for scientific purposes. On 5 April 2019 the Japanese Hayabusa2 robotic space probe released an explosive device called an "impactor" from space onto the surface of asteroid 162173 Ryugu, in order to collect debris released by the explosion. The mission was successful and Hayabusa2 retrieved valuable samples of the celestial body which it brought back to Earth.

In fiction

Main article:
Space warfare in fiction

Fictional or real space weapons in various forms are often prominently featured in science fiction, particularly in military science fiction and in video games with a sci-fi theme.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Here Is the Soviet Union's Secret Space Cannon". Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  2. ^ Hollings, Alex (2022-03-11). "The untold history of Russian weapons testing in space". Sandboxx. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  3. ^ "Polyus". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2010-01-02. Retrieved 2015-02-20.
  4. Time Magazine. July 9, 1945. Archived from the original
    on December 13, 2008.
  5. doi:10.1016/j.spacepol.2008.09.007
    .

External links

Media related to Space weapons at Wikimedia Commons

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