Counterspace Operations for Information Dominance

The launch of the Soviet “sputnik” satell i te in October 1957 shocked the world and propelled the rhetoric and the real i t ies of the cold war into the space age. At the same time, the Soviet feat ra ised the threat of mass dest ruct ion f rom space and served as the basis for s trategists to argue for a means to shoot down enemy satel l i tes . Although the arguments used to just i fy the need for an ant isatel l i te (ASAT) weapon h a v e changed in the years s ince sputnik, the policy and strategy for i ts employment have always focused on the need to destroy, or threaten to destroy, Soviet satell i tes on orbit .