other countries like because this is completely jeopardy if you start with referencing outer space. there's are down here a mosque a welcome back but a ruse to close the suspects linked to the terrorist attack on the capital's metro system have confessed twelve people were killed in the blast of a two hundred injured today's been declared an official day of. the global power structure could be shifting with political experts warning here and the rest to watch their backs as the world's finest is growing economies gain brown bears of pressure for still india china and south africa are gathering to discuss

a new international financial model and the libyan crisis. funding wars of the expense of education many americans iraq and all this is more social costs are announced all the pentagon refuses to battle the gigantic defense budgets around seven hundred billion dollars is spent each year on the country's military president reagan but once vowed to make star wars our reality but is this out of the world all project that on the agenda watch our special report coming up next here on c. thirty eight and they're going to go try to do it all. at present it is not known if weapons capable of striking targets on earth are

already deployed in space however orbiting insult systems are being researched. the u.s. military is developing what the air force in particular has called prompt global strike that is basically currently we have nuclear missiles that could strike anywhere on earth within thirty minutes. what the military is talking about is a similar conventional capability that could be used to knock out say a chinese anti-satellite weapons launcher in a matter of minutes. a number of concepts are being studied with this notion of prompt global strike. in two thousand and eight fifty million dollars was allocated to project a supersonic plane capable of reaching any point on the globe in only a few minutes and drop to six tons of bombs. one is a orbiting space satellite that would actually have missiles on it that could be

fired from space and reach a target in literally five to ten minutes as opposed to the current thirty minutes . military doctrine also for seize deploying batteries of missiles the doors of the planet striking at over seven thousand miles an hour these projectiles would be capable of wiping out simultaneously of two hundred targets on the ground with the destructive power of a nuclear device. can identify a target through overhead imagery process communications about the target between military decision makers and then guided bomb precisely enough to destroy the target with one shot. would it really be that big a step if a projectile itself were also launched from space there's no practical difference and i venture to say that the person on the receiving end wouldn't see the distinction either.

with all our technology we know bloody well that we cannot be assured absolutely one hundred percent that our bombs so-called think bombs smart bombs are hitting the targets we know from afghanistan and iraq alone in the last three years that that's a fallacy you ought to think civilian people you are not seizing the iraqi bases what you are doing is wrong how much worse with the probability of hitting the wrong target or hitting ourselves from outer space would be we have no way of calculating that it's not possible. at least one could go right and land in iowa or new york city or god knows where you know that that's

a reality and if if we don't accept that we just whistling in the dark and we're going to be victims of our own technology. has said that moving the arms race into space will be the largest industrial project in the history of the planet earth they can't take any chances they have to have an enemy they have to make people afraid someone's going to tax us with nuclear weapons we've got to have missile defense in order to protect us from attack iraq. one of the rogue states iran north korea and now they throw china into that equation. for the last three years the pentagon has been trying to make china the new body and china unwittingly

played into the united states hands with its anti-satellite test. according to some experts this anti-satellite test didn't come as a surprise to american officials. at the time i was at a conference in colorado springs and the military officers in the room actually left to watch the test in real time. so they were observing the actual chinese and the satellite as we know about every space launch we know about every rocket launch we have reconnaissance and surveillance satellites that can detect all these we detected the chinese test for example in fact we detected the two previous chinese tests that failed so we know about this it's extremely difficult to hide this space tests they're one of the most observable weapons tests you can possibly imagine.

everything indicates that china's anti-satellite test was intended to make the world aware of the united states intention to dominate his face by doing so this china also showed the united states that any orbiting weapon can be shot down. we wouldn't really want to see in the future and the surrounded by. of weapons which will make many kinds even more vulnerable than the situation today. at the united nations china with many other nations has since the 1980's and trying

to expand a nine hundred sixty seven outer space treaty. presently the treaty prohibits placing nuclear weapons in space but doesn't prohibit conventional weapons. each year this design and it initiative is rejected by the united states. it is a hundred and sixty two one hundred seventy one united states is the only nation actually voted against this were isolated on this issue. while we john is pushed our allies into consideration of more strategic independence from the united states in space and some people would argue perhaps in europe that that's a good thing maybe it's better that europe has strategic independence and space because they can serve as a counterweight but from a a u.s.

viewpoint it would seem to me that you would want your allies integrated into your system. of dollars by the european military equipment self with a wider array of military space systems in support of telecommunications navigation and information for ground troops. there are only as our top. sit we don't have them which certainly weakens the european armed forces how do you plan a nato makes them very dependent on the american spirit. is going to what does one need when one isn't gauged in a military. alteration in europe or more precisely in front or in britain because let me tell you europe does not yet exist in a military sense. and the europeans still rely on the american g.p.s. . during periods of diplomatic tension access to the american g.p.s.

can be denied by its own. like russia and china europe is developing its own global navigation satellite alternative known as the galileo system. you create enemies you terrify your friends and you really didn't mean to do that was not what you know if you're a strategic thinker you certainly do not want to be terrifying your allies that it could break up and you don't want to be provoking your enemies into taking actions to counter you. so i think we've stepped way over the rhetorical line here. in the united states anyway and we have to figure out how to back away from that because we're actually creating negative consequences and more spurring other people to do things that will challenge us and this. for

a number of decades the united states has been pursuing a military doctrine of space control. however even without a treaty in place many weapons in space the u.s. congress alone could apply the brakes to such developments it would be nice to think that space weaponization is prevented not because there's a huge outcry against it although that would be an interesting prospect to because no one including our own nation has the money to spend on this anymore but in an era when the united states still maintains a five hundred billion dollar military budget every year i don't think we can count on. that happens it's really insane now we are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to develop strace control means that a treaty would take care of would make unnecessary if we had the world to negotiate

such a treaty if we took a lead. we could give up on it wouldn't be easy it would be a very difficult thing to do but it could be done. we're. going to treat an all anti-satellite weapons in our own base lasers conventional missiles and most orbiting systems can be used to destroy satellites. could it truly guarantee that kill vehicles would only target missiles not satellites or burst down objects. and. opponents of a new treaty argue such concepts are untenable and too late. weaponization of space has happened a long time ago. this idea that it's a pristine environment that if only we stop where we are right now all will be well is simply nonsense for certain experts

a wider range of international understandings will be needed to guarantee the peaceful uses of space we do indeed need a united nations treaty this is not enough this is only step one step two says ok space has been militarized there are military networks in space many of them like g.p.s. are useful but we should work on international treaties to make those military space networks used for multilateral purposes do i think that's going to happen i'm very doubtful but i have to keep hoping and believing that there is a prospect for that. those fearing the weaponization of space could find hope in barack obama's election got tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending cut investments in other proven missile defense systems will not weaponized space.

as soon as he took office the white house announced that it would be seeking a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites. however it proved difficult to change decades of entrenched military policy and programs to weaponize stace. history suggests that nations do not voluntarily disarm they disarm because they're defeated or they make small adjustments in the way they buy and build and deploy their weapons but no superpower says you know it would be better if we were weaker i don't recall that ever happening.

obama went on to allocate billions of dollars for a full range of space control systems including a program called offensive counter space. the pentagon define this new program as offensive measures to disrupt. the grid or destroy any adverse or is based capabilities. yet. oh. by. the air force academy in colorado springs for the doctrine of space control and its possible consequences our study. it's hard to change space period already without attacking so i'm afraid that if we want space we're going to have to

attack and resistance which i don't know if you know much about oral mechanics but if you create a degree of in space that would just get in the way for you as well and it kind of start chain reaction and pretty soon you just have a cloud of debris surrounding earth. about six hundred thousand fragments fly through space at ten times the velocity of a rifle bullet. all these objects are traveling at fourteen thousand miles an hour so even an object the size of a pea traveling at that speed has more force than a. cannonball. right now the problem with space junk is so high that nasa is worried that if there is never another watch of anything into space it has every launch creates a little bit of debris. in fifty years time. certain orbits will be

so polluted that nobody can operate there because the stuff that's already out there will start breaking out then creating more mark. as satellites destruction unleashes a storm cloud of debris that fouls outer space and threatens everything in orbit. the point really is creation of debris in this manner a good idea or a bad idea and clearly it is a very bad idea because there is no way to go up and clean that up. the more times you go into space and you begin to practice destroying other satellites you create so much space junk that you literally create the very likely possibility that at some point in time you will not be able to get a rocket off the planet earth because it'll be like a minefield around the planet and you won't be able to escape

a minefield with that rocket because it would be destroyed by all the space junk there so we've got to begin to look at space as an environment. we have several hundred billion dollars of investment in the peaceful uses of outer space i'm talking about weather satellites positioning satellites. a scientific satellite. the entire world communication network is all satellite oriented. all this incredible investment from the united states and from the european union and canada other countries like this all of this is completely a jeopardy if we start putting weapons in outer space how would our world change if

we lost the use. satellites they want six fifteen am communication satellites hovering over the americas fall mute over a swath of the globe with g.p.s. coverage collapses atomic clocks on g.p.s. satellites can transmit universal standard time synchronization of nasa the infrastructure has failed three hundred million cell phones are disabled. hundreds of millions of internet connections vanish around the world card payments and bank accounts freeze billions of dollars are sucked from the industries and businesses triggering a financial crash news services are crippled city streets relying on g.p.s. for traffic management are in chaos electrical grids are destructive winds known as of cotton these are blinded by blackouts. coastguards are deaf to shifts distress calls. from dozens of their crafts are missing air traffic controllers are fighting panic worldwide flights are grounded for a callback by midnight there have been

a cascade of traffic trained both in the aircraft accidents. so far a world is awarded such a catastrophe. but a space war would kill satellites and blast tons of wreckage into orbit the system we rely on would shatter and the impossible to restore. every nation would suffer the consequences of armed conflict in space still some maintain that being the first to place rations in space remains the best option they say the time six twenty five and this is especially as part of the conference on world affairs we're discussing the militarization of space there is a point in time that maybe rapidly closing your eyes is good dominates those as such or where there would be no arms race frankly i don't think it's doable i think the march of technology will mean that even if we get a lead on other nations in attempting to do that sooner or later. he will again be

challenged it's kind of like what happened there to world war two we had the atomic bomb nobody else our viewers oh my god we thought we had a bigger explosive and with our tomic weaponry. we would be able to dominate the earth that didn't last very long the soviet satellites are on the chinese side on the job. like wisest raised to think that we can move up there with reverend wright and be allowed to be the king be the throne of space is a tragic miscalculation. everybody thinks that what denies in six days is a dangerous idea and that old problems other countries still also develop space weapons specifically. india has been discussing whether or not it needs to build its own any zealot weapons you can be sure india does it pakistan will be thinking about it in a heartbeat as well israel has also been discussing this issue so what you see now

is a tension for domino that if some nations would yield to american domination others would attempt to counter the united states think and pass the control of space by a single superpower all nations most stable and unstable would be dragged into a new arms race. the european union has been up until now opposed to the weaponization of space. but for how much longer soon as i mean if the us continues to develop come out only military satellites that's also space based weapons because we will have to think about it and find ways to defend ourselves from them american friends and the arms race that it will trigger quillan the quickly. russia has declared that if the united states goes on pursuing its doctrine it will have no choice but to destroy awarding threats. if americans deploy.

phase based antibodies the mistrial defenses then could you imagine intercept us based on space stations military stations longer fly city thore or vittorio off school try enough their food because he did it as a quite unacceptable as i seem quite russian. seriously ruin it for this year's star wars is no longer a fantasy it is a reality for the good of course such a policy is a catalyst of an arms race you would. need domination of the factor of force is nourishing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction my solution. it is not citizens in russia's opinion of the militarization of outer space could have

unpredictable consequences for the international community he could provoke nothing less than the beginning of a new nuclear era. besides the negative environmental impacts in outer space the policy of space domination could also have a destabilizing effect on earth. weaponize ation of space could be the trigger that unleashes nuclear war. signy anxiety induced by putting weapons in space or launching weapons from space downed worth. cording juice by accident by human fallibility by design by terrorists now launching up to nine thousand hydrogen bombs inducing a short ice age and the death of my screeches on the planet. brownie age of the nuclear precipice about nominations.

the military use of space seems inevitable the rabidly valving technology and the lack of a strong treaty these the door opened to the most bellicose instincts and space. every year the air force academy and its most brilliant graduates from the ranks of the masters of spades the chances for preserving outer space for peaceful ends remains the challenge of the world at large usually we're trying to bring back weapons systems after they've been deployed nuclear missiles we're trying to bring them back here's an opportunity one of the first times in history actually that we have a chance to be proactive we have a chance to stop a new arms race before it actually happens that's why this moment is so crucial.

the debate over space what. is the most critical debate for the next century and we're on the verge. of making decisions in may nations around the world about which path to choose.

all.