Does India's Anti-Satellite Missile Test Mean The Weaponization of Space? (reuters.com)

Reuters reports: India expects space debris from its anti-satellite weapons launch to burn out in less than 45 days, its top defense scientist said on Thursday, seeking to allay global concern about fragments hitting objects. The comments came a day after India said it used an indigenously developed ballistic missile interceptor to destroy one of its own satellites at a height of 300 km (186 miles), in a test aimed at boosting its defenses in space.

Critics say such technology, known to be possessed only by the United States, Russia and China, raises the prospect of an arms race in outer space, besides posing a hazard by creating a cloud of fragments that could persist for years. G. Satheesh Reddy, the chief of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, said a low-altitude military satellite was picked for the test, to reduce the risk of debris left in space.
Space.com shared a reaction from a national security affairs professor at Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. They argued that India's test "likely represents a feeling by other countries, specifically India in this case, that the weaponization of space is forthcoming, and India doesn't want to be left out of the 'have' category if arms-control agreements are eventually reached."

Comments

Is this even a serious question?

[bferrell]

"Is this the weaponization of space?"

"Space" has been weaponized since at least 1966, when Robert Heinlein wrote The Moon is a Harsh Mistress... Remember dropping grain carriers loaded with tons of rocks?

Just as geosynchronous satellites became a foregone conclusion once Clarke postulated about the math for them in 1945.

Duh

Re:Is this even a serious question?

[AmiMoJo]

India is just following others anyway. Last week the US tested an anti-ICBM system, and both the US and China have tested their own anti-satellite systems before.

Re:Is this even a serious question?

[quenda]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress... Remember dropping grain carriers loaded with tons of rocks?

It is a lot harder than "dropping". From the moon, you need a gun with a muzzle velocity of at least 2.3km/s. (or ballistic missile delta-V)
Current rail-gun technology can do this, but only for much smaller payloads, and we are a long way from getting the required battleships/frigates to the moon.

Don't kid yourself

[WindBourne]

US and Russia held back for decades due to treaties. But when china really got into space & was not bound by the treaty, well, all 3 almost certainly have weapons up there.

"Forthcoming" ?

[Antique Geekmeister]

There are too many security launches with classified payloads to pretend that the USA and Russia have not been launching at least anti-satellite weapons systems. Too many peaceful but energetic projects are also potentially weapons to be unwilling to acknowledge their danger. Solar mirrors can be aimed at space targets or ground targets, as can the "flying crowbar" project known as Project Pluto. The LEO cleanup tools, still on the drawing board, could take down accidental or obsolete debris in low Earth orbit. They could also destroy satellites.

Do bears run in woods?

[bobbied]

Weaponization of space has been a reality since Sputnik.

Weapons were the whole POINT of the exercise by both sides though the 70's, regardless of the propaganda saying otherwise.

The treaties that keep weapons from being based in space is very clearly only limiting WMD type weapons (nuclear bombs, chemical weapons etc) but they do not address conventional weapons, anti-satellite weapons or much else for that matter.

So India's actions are not evidence of anything new, just the continued realization that national defense *requires* a significant focus on controlling space in some way. Denying your adversaries the high ground, as we used to call it.