- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
Air Force embraced a report that cited the ``virtual certainty'' of future
hostile action in space and said it was moving forward with plans to boost
U.S. military strength in the heavens.
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- Donald Rumsfeld headed the congressionally mandated commission
that issued the report, although he stepped down from the commission post
after being tapped to become President George W. Bush's defense secretary.
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- ``The Air Force strongly supports the space commission
report and is already moving to implement many of (its) recommendations,''
said Maj. Gen. Brian Arnold, director of space and nuclear deterrence in
the Air Force secretary's acquisitions office.
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- He said Thursday that the service was working with Stephen
Cambone, a top Rumsfeld aide, to align the space programs of the Air Force
and the National Reconnaissance Office, the Pentagon arm that develops
and manages U.S. spy satellites, and make other organizational and management
changes.
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- Before moving to the Pentagon with Rumsfeld, Cambone
served as staff director of the space commission, which urged that space
be recognized as a ``top national security priority.''
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- ``We know from history that every medium -- air, land
and sea -- has seen conflict. Reality indicates that space will be no different,''
the commission said in the Jan. 11 report to Congress.
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- ``Given this virtual certainty, the U.S. must develop
the means to both deter and defend against hostile acts in and from space,''
it said. ``This will require superior space capabilities.''
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- The panel said the U.S. government should make sure the
president ``will have the option to deploy weapons in space to deter threats
to and, if necessary, defend against attacks on U.S. interests.''
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- Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Hansen said Rumsfeld himself
had not yet officially acted on the recommendations of his own commission's
report.
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- ``The internal review is ongoing,'' she said, with a
goal of advising Congress within 90 days of the submission of the report.
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- Build ``Critical Mass''
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- Arnold, at an Alexandria, Virginia conference on aerospace
power, said a key Air Force goal was to build the ``critical mass'' for
getting the highest levels of government to focus on military space policy.
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- The Air Force will seek to resurrect a program to test
a space-based radar aimed at giving a sharper view of enemy territory,
potentially a multibillion-dollar effort, he told Reuters after addressing
the conference.
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- Congress killed the program last year, citing cost concerns.
Among the contractors involved are Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
.
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- At the conference, Arnold cited the outcome of the first
U.S. war games based on the possibility of war in space as evidence of
the importance of developing an effective military presence in space. The
war games were played out last month at Schriever Air Force Base outside
Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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- The classified games, set in 2017, demonstrated that
a robust U.S. space presence provides a stable, permanent peacekeeping
capability as well as the potential for an early deterrent strike, Arnold
said. One assumption was that the heavens will be loaded with weapons,
including small satellites that can maneuver against other satellites to
blind them or disable them.
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- The war games showed that a robust U.S. military presence
in space was ``much more stabilizing'' than a weaker U.S. presence, Arnold
said.
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