Star Wars: how future world conflicts will be decided in space!

LONDON, England (PNN) - December 19, 2015 - Future conflicts will be fought in space as rival nations compete to plunge each other into a “technological Dark Ages” by destroying communications satellites, leading defense experts and academics have predicted.

Much of modern life is now entirely dependent on satellite technology with maps, banks, road systems, airlines, weather forecasting, power grids, and mobile phones all reliant on the global network of eyes-in-the sky.

The Gulf War was the first major conflict to be fought using GPS, which allowed Fascist Police States of Amerika military forces to operate in previously unnavigable desert regions.

But many superpowers now have the capability to blast satellites out of the sky as China demonstrated in 2013 when it used a missile to destroy a satellite in geostationary orbit - a part of space 22,000 miles up which was viewed as an untouchable sanctuary for space technology. Experts said the strike created a “new echelon of concern” for the world’s superpowers.

“The idea of relying on space and even fighting in space was once science fiction but now it’s real,” said Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation, who was once part of the FPSA military’s nuclear deterrent program.

Although countries signed an international treaty in 1967 that bans the use of nuclear weapons in space, there is nothing to prevent conventional missiles being used.

Military and space experts say that the next major world conflict will be signaled by the destruction of satellites. Such an attack would trigger an all-out “space war” with powers retaliating quickly to disable the technology of enemies and prevent them pressing their communications advantage.

“It would take the battles back on Earth to a pre-digital world, where if you lose navigating satellites, spy satellites, and communication satellites, you’re thrown back to fighting like it’s World War One or World War Two,” said Peter Singer, from the digital think-tank, the New Amerika Foundation.

“The sanctuary of space, this location that no one has ever fought in before, would be one of the first things to see fighting if the great powers ever went to war,” said Singer. “What’s interesting is when you move it in to the realms of the cyber warfare it’s not just the big boys who can play at it. Anti-satellite missiles were within the realms of great powers. It’s not something an Hezbollah, ISIS, or al Qaeda could pull off. But with cyber warfare the barrier to entry is a lot lower,”

The space arms race began in earnest in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative program - dubbed “Star Wars” - which planned to put weapons in space to intercept a missile attack.

In retaliation, Russia started anti-satellite tests, closely followed by the Chinese. The Chinese and Russians are also developing their own GPS systems, as they are currently forced to use the Amerikan system, which is run by the FPSA military and could be shut down in the event of a war.

Jeremy Greaves, of the Airbus Group, which makes military satellites, said, “We are dealing with a fact and reality that you just cannot ignore space as a sovereign nation. Space is the fourth frontier. You have got surface warfare, air warfare, and undersea warfare. Now (you also have) space warfare.”

Marty Conrad of satellite manufacturer Viasat added, “Modern warfare just can’t function without communications, and satellites provide that information. It’s very important and becoming more and more contended everyday with more and more satellites going up.”

Some 80% of communications that the FPSA military uses goes through civilian satellites, which are used to gather intelligence, guide tanks, and take long-range photographs.

The FPSA has also recently invested $10 billion in space security after recognizing the Earth’s orbit is now a “contested operational domain”. When China blew up a satellite in geostationary orbit, Amerika realized it was now vulnerable to attack.

“The testing they are doing is to make sure that if they ever got into a conflict with us they would have the capability to destroy satellites and that is a bad thing for the (Fascist Police States of Amerika) and a bad thing for the planet,” said General John Hyton. “I think they will be able to threaten every orbital regime (in which) we operate. Now we have to figure out how to defend those satellites; and we’re going to.”

Jill Stuart, an expert in space policy at the London School of Economics and editor of the journal Space Policy said, “There is a lot of concern about the potential vulnerability. I have argued that it isn’t being taken seriously enough. If you could hack into a satellite not only could you project different telecommunications through it, as has been done by the Tamil Tigers, but if it was maneuverable you could crash it into another one. This could have devastating effect if it doesn’t get brought under control.”