WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work was reported in the Washington Post on Tuesday as acknowledging that many US space-based military systems were large, expensive and capable, but also enormously vulnerable.
"I think that all the satellites in time will be vulnerable to attack," Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility and co-winner of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize said. “This is serious because satellites control our very lives."
Caldicott, co-author with Craig Eisendrath of a study of the military space race called "War in Heaven,” explained that many of the most crucial systems for communications and security were now based on satellites whose orbits were predictable and could be easily knocked out.
"We are dependent on satellites for nearly everything — through Google, social media, the global financial system, all global communications, the trigger for nuclear war, and surveillance of virtually everyone on the planet," Caldicott pointed out.
However, US policymakers have refused for more than 20 years to acknowledge the potential vulnerability of their space-based systems and have refused repeated offers from Russia and China to negotiate a treaty to end the deployment of military systems in space, she added.
"America by leading the space race has made itself extremely vulnerable in the future, as other countries ably catch up to the latest technology."
