US insists on right to develop arms for outer space

2006-06-15

Richard Moore

Original source URL:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-13T115717Z_01_L13495545_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARMS-SPACE-USA.xml&archived=False

US insists on right to develop arms for outer space
Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:57 AM ET
By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday reasserted its right to develop 
weapons for use in outer space to protect its military and commercial satellites
and ruled out any global negotiations on a new treaty to limit them.

In a speech to the Conference on Disarmament, a senior State Department arms 
control official insisted that such weapons systems would be purely defensive.

Washington sees no need for negotiations to prevent an arms race in space as a 
40-year-old international treaty banning weapons of mass destruction in space 
remains adequate, he said.

John Mohanco, deputy director of the office of multilateral, nuclear and 
security affairs, said the United States faced a threat of attacks from the 
earth or from other countries' spacecraft. He did not name any potential 
attackers.

"As long as the potential for such attacks remains, our government will continue
to consider the possible role that space-related weapons may play in protecting 
our assets," he told the United Nations-backed forum.

"For our part, the United States does not have any weapons in space, nor do we 
have plans to build such weapons," he said.

The White House is due to announce a new space policy this month, the first 
overhaul in a decade. Some U.S. experts have said it will underscore the 
Pentagon's determination to protect its existing space assets and maintain 
dominance of outer space.

The United States and Britain are under pressure to agree to global negotiations
on space at the 65-member Geneva forum, where they remain virtually alone in 
opposing them.

Washington argues a treaty banning production of nuclear bomb-making fissile 
material should be the forum's next goal.

Last week, China and Russia warned that space-based weapons would pose a threat 
as great as weapons of mass destruction and pointed to gaps in existing 
international law. The two powers also back fissile talks under a wider agenda 
including space.

LION'S SHARE

The United States -- which has the "lion's share of assets in outer space" -- 
remains committed to the peaceful use of space by all nations, according to 
Mohanco.

"There is no -- repeat, no -- problem in outer space for arms control to solve,"
he said, citing "unprecedented international cooperation" in civil and 
commercial space activities, including among former Cold War foes.

A 1967 U.N. treaty bans weapons of mass destruction from space, but some experts
believe the United States would not shy away from withdrawing from the pact.

In 2002, it pulled out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty to begin 
deploying a missile defense shield.

Mohanco vowed all U.S. activities in the exploration and use of outer space 
would comply with international law.

But a new pact to ban anti-satellite weapons or other space-related weapon 
systems would be impossible, given the problems of defining what it covered, 
because any space object had an inherent "dual-use potential", meaning it could 
be used for civilian or military purposes, he said.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.
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