Nuclear Weapons and Outer Space

A treaty designed to prevent the use of outer space for military attack was signed with great ceremony early last year by the United States and the Soviet Union. The recent announcements of the Russian orbital bomb and the American space bus indicate, sadly, that this agreement is already crumbling.

Technically, a space weapon is defined as one which completes at least one full orbit of the earth, so neither of the new weapons actually violates the treaty. Even so, they probably represent intermediate stages in the development of full-fledged space weapons aimed at earth.

The important thing to realize is that the technical problems that stood in the way of space weapons have been solved. Ever since the late 1950's, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. have been able to launch fairly heavy objects into orbit. Until recently, however, it was thought inconceivable that warheads could be delivered accurately in orbital flight. Now both countries appear to have devised such methods.

The Russian weapon, the fractional orbit bombardment system, (FOBS), travels in an orbital path until it swoops down on a target under the impact of a breaking device. It would be simplicity itself to convert the FOBS into a multi-orbital system.

The American 'space bus' consists at present of a single ballistic missile stage with a number of warheads, all of which can be guided to separate targets. Obviously such a delivery system will work on an orbiting satellite armed with nuclear warheads.

Past experience has often shown that once the technical barriers to some course of action are removed, it becomes too difficult to exercise effective political restraint. It may thus be only a matter of time before some new development in the ABM systems of either nation or further increases in nuclear strength forces both sides to place permanently circling nuclear warheads into space. That situation is precisely what the outer space treaty attempted to outlaw.

The new weapons have shown how easily the treaty's restrictions on orbiting weapons are circumvented. It is difficult to see how the treaty's other provisions against warfare on the moon and the planets will fare any better.