Space: The Final Frontier . . . for War

Whenever humanity ventures into a new realm, competition and warfare are sure to follow.

“Once humans go somewhere,” geopolitical analyst and author Brandon Weichert astutely observed, “they will eventually fight over that place. It is, after all, human nature. Since human nature is flawed but fixed, eventually, a war in space will occur—it’s a question of when, not if” (Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, 2020, p. 36).

Lloyd Austin, the retired four-star general who serves as the U.S. secretary of defense, has echoed the inevitability of clashes in space by bluntly designating space as “a war-fighting domain” and an “arena of great power competition.”

While wars in the near future are unlikely to be fought solely in orbit, conflicts in space will determine the outcomes of actions on solid ground.

The increasingly crowded battlefield miles above the slugfests in Ukraine and Gaza highlights how conflicts in space will be an essential part of what is happening on the ground.

Russia has relentlessly jammed Ukrainian GPS signals used for navigation and mapping. Ukraine has relied on crucial Starlink satellites provided by Elon Musk to control drones, track warships, destroy command centers and identify mass graves.

In its war against Hamas, Israel has extensively used satellite technology for its drones and its Iron Dome and Arrow missile defense systems.

Sputnik and the era of astropolitics

Though often thought of as benign, space exploration has been militarized since humanity first broke through the atmosphere.

China’s military strategists astutely identified the U.S. military’s dependence on satellites to be a potential American Achilles’ heel. The “Sputnik moment,” when the Soviets became the first to launch a satellite into space in 1957, stunned citizens of the West. Barely bigger than a beach ball and weighing just 184 pounds, the Sputnik satellite contained only a barometric switch, thermal control system, a fan, a radio transmitter, batteries and little else. But it symbolized control of the heavens.

The Soviets later put the first dog and then the first human into orbit before America leapfrogged them by putting the first human on the moon. It was only the economic demise of the U.S.S.R. that shelved Soviet designs for battle stations with nuclear weapons in orbit.

U.S. dominance in space

The United States has been the dominant player in space for more than four decades. Its ability to project military power today is based almost entirely on space support. This supremacy underpins all aspects of its national power, including diplomatic, economic and national security. It also influences the political will to take action that comes from the illusion of perfect knowledge of enemy deployments and intentions.

Military experts note that individual targets in the Second World War often required hundreds of bombing runs and thousands of bombs. But by the time of Operation Desert Storm in 1991—dubbed America’s first space war—a single missile, guided surgically by satellite GPS, could do the job.

More than 70 percent of U.S. weapons now rely on satellites to function. The Pentagon has grown reliant on finesse and technical wizardry to offset numerical disadvantages.

“Many Western analysts,” noted Weichert, “have assuaged concerns about Western defensive vulnerabilities in Europe by proclaiming the glories of the magical elixir that is American high technology” (p. 16).

Exploiting U.S. vulnerability

Even as the United States took its dominance in space for granted, the Chinese diligently analyzed the American military. They studied the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and of Iraq in 2003. The battlefield successes—thousands of satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles delivered with devastating precision—were attributed to space dominance.

But China’s military strategists astutely identified the U.S. military’s dependence on satellites to be a potential American Achilles’ heel. Without what the Chinese refer to as the “American magic” of satellite communication, navigation, intelligence and precision targeting, U.S. forces would be extremely vulnerable.

Over the last two decades, China has explored multiple ways to exploit that perceived weakness and gain the technological edge in space. Beijing has invested heavily in a push to become the new global hegemon by 2049.

As a result, the satellites on which the U.S. military depends are more vulnerable today than at any other time in history.

The new geography

Military and geopolitical experts have long understood the value of holding the strategic high ground. Now command of low-earth orbit is increasingly considered the key to controlling all warfare and, some say, the destiny of mankind.

The United States is now in a second space race. Primacy in low-earth orbit is now seen as a strategic “choke point,” like the Suez Canal or the Straits of Hormuz or Malacca.

Surprise orbital onslaught

Future victories on land, sea or air will go to the power that controls space. The ability to decisively knock out enemies’ reconnaissance, communications and navigational satellites will leave them unable to even aim their weapons.

This was underscored by former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who warned that “the next Pearl Harbor could happen in space.” Such a catastrophic surprise attack could leave the military blind.

Such a strike could emanate from China or from its strategic partner in space, Russia. A surprise space attack could also involve an orbital electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon springing from the rogue states of North Korea or Iran. Such weapons could, for all practical purposes, send the United States back to the 19th century.

Going back in time

Most people don’t recognize how dependent we are on space. Space-based technology is critical to everything we do—from banking systems to weather forecasting. It underpins great swaths of modern life, and any disruption in that domain would throw the entire global economy and communications network into disarray.

A surprise attack on a satellite constellation could crash the economy, knock out communications and cause mass blackouts that would bring a modern society—especially the United States—to a grinding halt.

The strategic high ground

As a rising superpower, China is looking for places where it can outflank America. China has gone all in for space. It aims to gain the ultimate high ground and blunt America’s current military superiority by canceling out the orbital fleets that give the U.S. military a technological edge.

In a 2021 interview, Gen. David Thompson, then vice chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, noted that Russia and China are launching attacks on U.S. satellites “every single day.” He referred to them as “reversible attacks” (not causing permanent damage), but it’s clear that Russia and China are constantly probing for weaknesses.

China has developed precision-guided missiles capable of shooting down satellites, electronic jammers and ground-based lasers capable of blinding orbiting satellites, and small maneuvering satellites equipped with robotic arms that can grab, capture or crush satellites.

Recent highlights of China’s military space program include the following:

• China was the first country to land successfully on the moon in the 21st century and has done so three times. In 2019 its space program became the first to achieve a landing on the dark side of the moon.
• China orbited, landed and deployed a rover on Mars in 2021 and plans to send Chinese astronauts to the moon by 2030.
• China is developing plans with Russia to build a base on the moon. And it is already the only country operating its own space station, the Tiangong 3.
• In 2020 Beijing completed BeiDou, a vast navigation network, to challenge the American-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
• Between 2019 and 2021 China doubled its orbital satellite armada, launching a satellite about every six days in 2022. China has launched the first satellites of its Guowang broadband constellation, which will eventually be composed of 13,000 satellites, and is planning a second project, the G60 constellation, which would add 12,000 more.
• It is predicted that by 2026 China will have developed a growing arsenal of more than 200 anti-satellites to blind, dazzle or capture competitor satellites.
• China launched its own reusable robotic spaceplane, called Shenlong—Chinese for “divine dragon”—in 2020. The spaceplane looks similar to the secretive American X-37B spaceplane, which is a miniature robotic version of NASA’s retired Space Shuttle.

China’s dream

Back when the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for supremacy in an epic space race, Chairman Mao Zedong lamented that China couldn’t even launch a potato into space. China has come a long way since then.

Current President Xi Jinping sees the space program as a source of national pride and part of his China dream: “To explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream.”

Other nationalist dreams—like bringing Taiwan under the control of communist Beijing—would require dominating the all-important strategic high ground of space.

The problem is man, not space

The 20th-century French philosopher Raymond Aron wrote at the dawn of the space age, before many of our current technological wonders came into existence. Still, he was able to foresee mankind’s dilemma with space: “Short of a revolution in the heart of man and the nature of states, by what miracle could interplanetary space be preserved from military use?”

These words echo what the Bible revealed millennia before about war going wherever mankind goes: “Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known” (Romans 3:16-17).

Will there be war in space?

The Bible foretells several spectacular end-time events in the heavens above, including a great war against what people may believe to be an “invader” from outer space. The book of Revelation vividly describes the dramatic return of Jesus Christ to earth. He won’t require satellites or space weapons. His return will not be clandestine or secretive.

In a visible, booming and unmistakable fashion, the whole world “will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). His return is likened to lightning flashing or a brilliant illumination in the sky (verse 27). There will be a tremendous trumpet blast heard worldwide (verse 31) as well as a great shout, signaling Jesus’ imminent return and the resurrection of the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Despite this shock-and-awe entrance, Christ will not, at first, be accepted as Savior, but will be viewed as a threat to mankind’s hold on power.

“All the tribes of the earth will mourn” and—in a state of strong delusion—go out to fight against Christ. But the combined force of all the nations’ military power—presumably including every possible space-based weapon—will be hurled against Him in vain.

The glorified and risen Christ will then “go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east” (Zechariah 14:3-4).

The apostle John further illustrates the dramatic event: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

“His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.

“Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:12-16).

Jesus Christ will bring an amazing conclusion to the space race. As the victorious Prince of Peace, He will set up His government to rule all nations and put an end to wars on the earth and in the heavens.

Learn more about events about to unfold and mankind’s future in our free booklet The Book of Revelation: The Storm Before the Calm.