Shooting Down a "Star"

Space-based systems of various kinds had proven their worth well before the end of the Cold War. But it was only during the Persian Gulf War that the enormous multiplier effect of space systems on combat operations became widely recognized. In the immediate aftermath of that conflict, then Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill A. McPeak went so far as to describe Operation Desert Storm as America's "first space war." Military exploitation of space has markedly accelerated during the years since 1991. So has US reliance on the satellite systems that inhabit the immense realm. "Shooting Down a Star: Program 437, the US Nuclear ASAT System and Present-Day Copycat Killers," by Lt. Col. Clayton K. S. Chun, is a case study of an early US antisatellite (ASAT) weapon system. In this study, Colonel Chun shows how the US Air Force developed a rudimentary ASAT system from obsolete Thor intermediate ballistic missiles, an existing space tracking system, and nuclear warheads. Largely forgotten today, this system helped to defend the United States from 1964 until the demise of the program in the mid-1970s. Since many of Program 437's components were from off-the-shelf weapons stocks and ready to field after a short development program, the Air Force's first ASAT system was relatively inexpensive to create, deploy, and operate. In tracing the evolution of this ASAT system based on 1950s technology, Colonel Chun notes that a growing number of nations today have access to technology of much more recent vintage. He ten proceeds to address in some detail the vulnerability of space-based systems that have become essential to the security and operational prowess of the United States and its allies. Giving growing US reliance on space systems for warning, employment of precision weapons, communications, navigation and positioning support, weather reporting, and surveillance and reconnaissance, Colonel Chun's study constitutes a timely reminder of the threat that even a rudimentary ASAT could pose.