'No Matter What': US Poised to Deploy Space-Based Weapons by 2020 – Reports

In mid-June, US President Donald Trump ordered the country's Department of Defense to create the Space Force as the sixth branch of the US Armed Forces. He said that the goal is to outpace such nations as China and Russia.
Sputnik

The US House of Representatives has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019, which specifically stipulates "the development and deployment of persistent space-based sensor architecture" by the end of 2022 to ensure the effectiveness of the country's missile defenses.

The 716 billion-dollar defense spending bill, in other words, will prompt the US military to work on new early warning satellites to destroy incoming ballistic missiles from space "no matter what" and even if "the [US] Missile Defense Agency argues against" all this, according to The Drive, a website.

READ MORE: Trump's Space Force Plan Likely to 'Require Budget Cuts' to Pentagon — Analysts

Referring to the "regionally focused" space-based weapons mentioned by the NDAA, the website explained that it apparently stipulates that these weapons "will be positioned to respond to threats from only one specific part of the world, such as the area around Iran or North Korea."

In this context, The Drive cited last year's NDAA bill as saying that   the space-based system's goal is to achieve "an operational capability at the earliest practicable date", something that the Pentagon hopes to implement by using solid-state lasers mounted on high-flying drones and a physical kinetic weapon.

READ MORE: Russia to Deliver US New Rocket Engines As Trump Creates Space Force

US 'Incentivizes an Arms Race' With Plans to Dominate Outer Space - Analyst
Commenting on the matter, the Russian Foreign Ministry, for its part, warned on July 27 that "a military confrontation in space may be as dangerous as the nuclear arms race set off by Washington in the middle of the last century."

The ministry slammed the US military space program as "adventurism" that may have "the most negative impact on the state of international security."

"Russia prioritizes the use and exploration of space only for peaceful purposes" and "forward-thinking forces in all the countries support us in this," the ministry underlined.

READ MORE: Russia Could Be 'Key US Partner' in Defining Peaceful Use of Outer Space

At the same time, Moscow expressed hope that the US would abandon steps that could threaten world peace, urging Washington "to be prudent and not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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