How the United States is gearing up to protect its satellites from attack, disruption, or denial of service. Deputy for military space in the Office of the Undersecretary of the Air Force, Robert Dickman, details the link toward national security with his statement that the United States is “beyond the point where we can successfully prosecute a war without space systems and that is not lost on our adversaries.” One big issue is what effects a nuclear explosion in space may have on satellites. According to Dickman: “We are more concerned about things like a nuclear burst at low altitude now than we were 15 years ago,” with the “pumped radiation” effect named as the primary worry (versus an electromagnetic pulse, which some had thought would be harmful to satellites). Another problem is detecting what is an attack against U.S. satellites, since a flicker in service could also be attributed to technological failure or natural phenomenon. Along those lines, the United States has started Rapid Attack Identification, Detection and Reporting System (RAIDRS) to improve its detection capabilities; this system should be operational in five years. RAIDRS would bolster the ground-based Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) Visible Sensor which presently is used for surveillance missions. A space-based version of MSX is also planned. DARPA is also looking into systems that could be used for space-based protective countermeasures, possibly to be made up of small satellites protecting a larger one. BAE Systems is reported to have a system that could possibly be deployed in two years where guardian microsatellites would detect and jam incoming anti-satellite weapons. The United States , in developing these protective technologies, aims to build a defense that would not create space debris and, according to Dickman, “our intent is to do things reversibly so we don't do long-term damage.”
