In an interview with The Washington Post earlier this week, Pence said the Trump administration must build up military defenses in space to counter Russian and Chinese security investments.
"An unconstrained arms race in space is a very dangerous path," UCS physicist Laura Grego, an expert on space and missile technology, said in the release on Thursday. "The best way to ensure the security of US space assets isn’t building space weapons."
The United States, Grego added, should strengthen the resilience of US satellite systems and reduce potential threats by negotiating international limits.
The physicist was also concerned by Pence during the same interview sowing doubt over the administration’s commitment to ban nuclear weapons in space.
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On Sunday, Trump said the United States was creating a space force to catch up with China and Russia. In September, Moscow warned Washington against deploying conventional arms in space, saying that the international community had to adopt an agreement on the issue. As of now, international law does not prohibit the deployment of arms in space, except for weapons of mass destruction.
