Wake-up call on space

By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.

This will be a big week for Donald Rumsfeld, President-elect Bush's
choice to head the Pentagon. Before it is over, he will have undergone
what may be a contentious examination of his record and views by members
of the Senate Armed Services Committee charged with considering his
nomination.

History will probably assign much greater importance, however, to
another date this week on Secretary-designate Rumsfeld's calendar. On
Thursday, he will unveil the report of a blue-ribbon, congressionally
mandated Commission on National Security Space Management and Organization
-- a panel assigned the momentous task of evaluating the need for U.S.
space power, and how it can be assured.

It remains to be seen precisely what the latest Rumsfeld Commission
will recommend. But its chairman gave an indication of the thrust in his
remarks after Mr. Bush announced his nomination on Dec. 28:

TRENDING: Is this what you voted for, America?

We are in a new national security environment. We do need to be
arranged to deal with the new threats, not the old ones ... with information
warfare, missile defense, terrorism, defense of our space assets and the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction throughout the world.

History teaches us that weakness is provocative. The task you have
outlined is to fashion deterrence and defense capabilities, so that our
country will be able to successfully contribute to peace and stability in
the world.

Just as some -- including, in all likelihood, at least a few
senators -- bridle at the idea of defending the American people against
ballistic missile attack, the notion that we should protect our "space
assets" is sure to provoke criticism from the usual suspects. After all,
they say, space must not be "militarized" and that arms control agreements
preventing anti-satellite weapons and other uses of space for military
purposes is a far more sure way to safeguard our equities there.

As it happens, the na?vet? and recklessness of such an approach was
made clear last week by a report out of Hong Kong to the effect that
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."

In fact, on Jan. 5, the newspaper Sing Tao Jih Pao revealed that:
"According to the well-informed sources, 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 satellites, including
low-orbit, medium-orbit and high-orbit satellites, both military and
civilian satellites, single satellites 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."

The Rumsfeld Space Commission will doubtless take note of this and
other ominous developments -- just as did a symposium on space power
convened last month by the Center for Security Policy (a summary of whose
proceedings is being released today). After all, U.S. intelligence has
become increasingly concerned over the fact that, thanks to collaboration
between Britain's University of Surrey and the Chinese People's Liberation
Army, Beijing has made great strides in the development of
micro-satellites capable of performing the sort of space control functions
described above.

As the once-and-future Secretary of Defense fully appreciates, given
the immense dependence of both the United States' military and economic
competitiveness upon unencumbered access to and use of space, the Nation
can no longer afford to indulge in wishful thinking that those equities
will remain inviolable indefinitely. And inherently unverifiable and
unenforceable international agreements cannot be relied upon to protect
space assets from "parasite satellites," jamming, lasers and other types
of interference and/or attack that may be exceedingly difficult to detect.

The time has come for a concerted national effort to assure that the
United States enjoys and can reliably exercise space power. This will
require first and foremost an appreciation of what is at stake, as well as
a clear program for enhancing the survivability of existing satellites and
greatly improving the Nation's ability to get into and exercise power in
and through outer space. We can only hope that Don Rumsfeld's latest,
immense contribution to the common defense will be the catalyst for such
urgently needed activities.

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. held senior positions in the Reagan Defense Department and is currently the president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington.