Space Warfare & Anti Satellite Weapons - 'Taking the High Ground' in the new warfighting domain

Whenever a new technology is developed a new domain becomes accessible, there's often a brief window before it's weaponised.

The first computer predates the first hacking attack, the first aircraft were not armed, and the first satellites were blissfully immune to any targeting or attack.

But humans are humans, and if there's a target to hit, sooner or later militaries will try to find a way to hit it. And where a domain becomes particularly valuable (in the way space has becomes) it makes sense that it will not remain immune to attack forever.

In this episode I begin what I hope is a miniseries (to be spread out over time) on war as a domain for competition and, potentially, warfighting. I look today specifically at the basics of space combat, and some of the tools available to nations who want to take the fight to an opponent's space-based capabilities.

Patreon:

Caveats & Comments:

Sources used during the video on France (including in relation to French space ambitions) are not repeated again below

Please note that this content has in places been (I think necessarily) simplified

Please also note that Counterspace programs are often some of the most guarded and protected programs out there (as far as we can tell). I thus fully expect that the publicly available picture of capabilities differs from the actual state of affairs, but I still think exploring the issue is valuable for the purposes of this channel.

All other common or previously cited caveats apply.

Sources & Reading:

US Defence Intelligence Agency - CHALLENGES TO SECURITY IN SPACE, Space Reliance in an Era of Competition and Expansion

CSIS - Space Threat Assessment 2023

NATO'S Approach to Space

Reporting on Russian ASAT

CRS: Space as a warfighting domain

CRS: Directed Energy Weapons

DOD commentary:

TASS on Peresvet laser

US Reporting on Peresvet

Space force 24 hour alert launch

TASS on Russian satellite loss reporting

On the Trump satellite image tweet

Drive on France's plans for armed satellites:

Esper on space weaponisation 2020

Joint Air & Space Power Conference 2021

France accuses Russia of spying on satellite

Indian ASAT ambitions:

Iain Boyd on Russian laser weapons

Timestamps:
00:00:00 — Space Warfare: Counterspace & Anti-satellite Weapons
00:01:57 — What Am I Talking About
00:03:28 — Contesting The High Ground
00:09:08 — Space Combat Fundamentals
00:17:45 — The Main Players
00:26:34 — Anti-satellite Weapons: Kinetic & Explosive
00:44:11 — Anti-satellite Weapons: Directed Energy
00:52:21 — Anti-satellite Weapons: Other Options
01:00:48 — Endure And Regenerate?
01:06:09 — Conclusions
01:07:37 — Channel Update

[PerunAU]

Hope you all enjoyed this week's topic. It may not be our standard fare but it's a fascinating emerging area and one I've always enjoyed engaging with.

Please feel free to decide whether or not accidentally nuking your own and allied satellites should or should not constitute the first successful use of an ASAT weapon.

I will also add a clarification because there is one point in this video where a joke gets in the way of precision. I refer at one point to satellites and debris suffering from orbital decay and then refer to gravity really resenting things being up there and wanting to bring them back to earth. To be clear, the biggest driver of orbital decay somewhere like LEO is going to be atmospheric drag. Gravity does want to kill you (and I will never not joke about that) but atmospheric drag is doing the dirty work of making it happen in those cases. I try to use jokes to reinforce and illustrate points, not muddy them, so apologies for that one missing the mark.

[awaitingbacklash]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I just last night caught Richard Iron’s talk at the Australian Institute of International Affairs from 2 weeks ago, examining aspects of the Ukraine War thus far. Perun was quoted on a number of occasions and received very high praise for his work here on YouTube. Just wanted to share this with everyone. It was nice to see our man getting some recognition in the wider community.

[Nmille]

Perun, I think I speak for us all when I say: don't get burned out. If you're still working your day job, and researching this quality content, we'd rather have uploads every other week than a decrease in quality or worse, a downturn in your health. Love your stuff, brother.

[lynleygilchrist]

Ahhhh Perun’s newest offering; I’m playing your videos to my new baby girl so she learns both excellent analytical skills & how to present difficult humanitarian topics with empathy & compassion. Showing her the standards of research & dry humour nice & early! ❤ from this very sleep deprived Geelong mum!

[colinburfeind]

I’m really glad you went into some detail on Kessler syndrome. I’m an aerospace engineering student and the idea of rendering spaceflight unusable for my lifetime seems so depressing and futile. I understand that conflict is bound to happen at times, but keeping humanity’s access to space out of it is a really good idea. Nobody wins when we lose access to orbit.

[goodlight]

"if everyone did their jobs perfectly then cyber threats wouldn't really be a significant problem which is why they continue to be a major threat" this had me cackling. lol

[spaceduck]

I don't think anybody would be disappointed if you continued this series of space based topics .

[jakobmax]

Orbital decay (14:20) is actually more a function of air resistance. The atmosphere doesnt magicaly stop at any one point, but just gets progressively thinner. If you put a heayvy lead ball into a 200km orbit its gonna stay there a while, but if you put 1kg stretched out sail into a 250km orbit its gonna decay pretty damn fast.

[sevex]

Britons: We've sent our first satellite into space. This marks a moment of great pride for our nation and the beginning of a new era of technological sophistication. The esteem is real.

Americans: it's nuked.

Britons:

Americans:😅

[wargriffin]

"The results were far more destructive than initially expected..."

- I'm starting to sense a theme with nuclear testing. 😂

[juliuskresnik]

Came for the Russo-Ukrainian war coverage, stayed for the Defense Industy & Engineering Presentations.

[AverageFreedomEnjoyer]

As a normal KSP player, I found this video better at teaching me how to make space based weapons than most other tutorials...

[ohnonomorenames]

Perun seems like he has made it as much as anyone can make it in 12mths on YouTube. Every video gets more views in 24hrs than subscribers. He has massive respect from his contemporaries and yet he manages to avoids moving visuals in a visual medium.
I wait to hear that Perun has stepped down as CEO from PowerPoint as it now has achieved everything anyone could ever have wanted.

[geoffreyparker]

Picking The Expanse vs the new Star Wars trilogy as the best illustration of doing space right vs wrong is perfect. I hope a few people discover the Expanse as a result.

[Syndr]

Hi Perun, looks like you getting real close to half a million subscribers. Amazing work you do.

[pseudonym]

Isn’t it amazing the number of scientific questions that get answered very quickly because of fear of other humans?

[mshepard]

I took space policy classes in college and I have to say you did an awesome job on this one.

[jerrywilde]

Absolutely brilliant. Perun just gets better and better, the quality of research and presentation matched to his infectiously dry humour makes this a "must view" channel on YT, comparable to the best available on any TV or cable channel. Hell, I came for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and have just stayed - at nearly 70 I've never played a computer game more complicated than Yahtzee or Solitaire in my life but, out of deference to Perun I have the feeling that I ought to try!

[JesseAllhands]

So glad you mentioned "The Expanse". What an incredible series! I really appreciated the attention to detail with regards to the appreciation of physics and science.

[bananaboi]

How on earth could you possibly write and narrate one of these every week?? Very impressive!