Prohibition on Weaponizing Space

International ban on the deployment of weapons systems in outer space. As a result of the military utility of space, the ban on weaponizing space is considered a key principle of arms control.

The power to project force capabilities anywhere in the world with weapons from space decreases the security of all nations and increases the threat of space becoming a battlefield. An extended military conflict in space would likely hinder the use of space for commercial and scientific purposes thereafter. Concern about the future capabilities of state militaries to launch weapons of mass destruction or target enemy troops from outer space have led technologically advanced countries, principally the United States and the Soviet Union, to agree in a series of treaties to limit the use of space for military purposes.

The U.S.–Soviet space race of the late 1950s and 1960s provided the impetus for prohibiting weapons in space. The 1957 Soviet launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, raised fears that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union in science and technology. The United States responded with more aggressive efforts to accelerate its own space program. By the early 1960s, these efforts led to concerns on both sides that space might be the next frontier of conflict in the Cold War. In 1963, U.S. president John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which placed a de facto moratorium on the use of space for military purposes. The treaty banned the testing of nuclear weapons in space and initiated successive negotiations on the military use of space.

In 1967, the United States and the Soviet Union were two of several nations to sign the Outer Space Treaty. The agreement prohibited member states from carrying, installing, or stationing weapons of mass destruction in space. Member states were also forbidden to establish military bases and conduct military maneuvers in space. By assenting to the Outer Space Treaty, the superpowers indicated their willingness to cooperate on space matters and arms control.

Five years later, the signing of the Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty marked the high point of [Page 603]U.S.–Soviet cooperation in space. Under the bilateral treaty, both countries were forbidden from deploying or testing ABM systems or components in space. The treaty also prohibited the parties from interfering with each other's national technical means of verification, or spy satellite programs. The treaty remained binding until both countries agreed to withdraw from it in 2002.

Although the ABM Treaty was considered successful at halting space weaponization by the superpowers, it failed to address U.S. concerns about a preemptive attack aimed at disabling U.S. military and civilian satellites. Because satellite systems can easily be tracked, they are vulnerable to being attacked with conventional or nuclear weapons. The U.S. interest in pursuing active-defense systems and hardening satellite targets indicates that the United States will continue to advance its already superior space program. As long as the United States remains the only country to possess the technological capabilities to weaponize space, it will likely retain space superiority for decades to come.

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