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(From International Affairs [Moscow], May 1959)

# The U.S.A. Plans Military Use of Outer Space

THE United States is seriously planning to make military use of outer space.

This is revealed by the top priority given to related development work, conducted on a sweeping scale and at an accelerated pace. "The physical assets of the United States ... in astronautics now reside in large measure in military activities," says Hanson W. Baldwin, military correspondent of the *New York Times*.¹ Although the concrete projects and plans are naturally kept secret, Pentagon spokesmen and other officials do not conceal the fact that the United States is concentrating on the military aspects of cosmonautics. Moreover, the space exploration goes on to the accompaniment of noisy propaganda of the possibilities opened up by apparatus and vehicles launched into outer space for military purposes.

No other topic is discussed, perhaps, more widely than the conquest of cosmic space for military use. It holds the limelight at Presidential press conferences, special Congressional Committees, and in the statements of U.S. political and military leaders. It is regularly featured in newspapers and magazines. *Air Force*, which recently called itself the "journal of air power", now claims to be the "journal of air and space power". *Missiles and Rockets*, a rocketry magazine, now calls itself "a journal of world astronautics". *War and Peace in the Space Age*,² a book by Lt.-Gen. James M. Gavin, former Assistant Army Chief of Staff, published last year in the U.S.A., has a wide circulation in the United States and the other NATO countries.

General Power, chief of the U.S. Strategic Air Command, writes: "During the past few months,

Maj.-Gen. M. MILSTEIN

one word has been included in the titles of more publications, in the names of more organizations, and the agendas of more meetings than perhaps any other word in the English language. I refer, of course, to the word 'space'."³ The huge U.S. propaganda machine is outdoing itself to boast the unlimited possibilities of using outer space for military purposes.

The first American satellites still had to be launched, when the Pentagon brass raised the question of the U.S.A. controlling outer space. The policy statement made by General White, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, at a rocketry conference in Washington in February 1958, is typical in this respect. He said that "the United States must win and maintain the capability to control space in order to assure... the pre-eminence of the free nations".⁴ meaning the United States and its NATO partners. Similar calls to establish U.S. control of space are sounded by American military and political leaders with ever persistent frequency.

What is up?² Why is the United States so desperately eager to establish control over outer space? Who is preventing U.S. scientists from conducting research there? Have forces appeared in inter-planetary space that threaten the existence of the American continent? Of course, not! The point is that America's rulers approach the exploration of cosmic space chiefly from the standpoint of finding new possibilities to inject new life into the much discredited "positions of strength" policy. Their approach is one of reinforcing their military might and creating a weapon that would enable them, the same as in the so-called "atomic monopoly" period, to

¹ New York Times, Jan. 16, 1959.

² James M. Gavin, *War and Peace in the Space Age*, New York, 1958.

³ *Air Force*, Nov. 1958, p. 79.

⁴ *Ibid.*, Apr. 1958, p. 80.

THE U.S.A. PLANS MILITARY USE OF OUTER SPACE

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threaten the world and try to impose their will on it. This is why space research is carried on in the United States chiefly with an eye to military uses.

General White, mentioned earlier, stresses that "the capability to control space ensures its advantageous ... use" for military purposes, and adds that "only through our military capability to control space will we be able to use space for peaceful purposes".⁵

American military leaders fail to define exactly what they mean by "the capability to control space". Some say it should be understood to mean the ability of the United States to control the access of any country into outer space and to prevent such access, when necessary. They advocate the idea of a "space blockade", similar to a wartime "blockade of seas and straits". Others, on the contrary, urge control not over access to outer space, but over re-entry into the atmosphere.

It would scarcely have been worth while mentioning all these views had they been voiced by people unassociated with the military policy of the United States and with its preparation for war. But these ideas are expressed by Pentagon leading figures such as the Air Force Chief of Staff and his colleagues.⁶ It should be noted that in the given case they are clearly losing their sense of proportion. These men forget, for example, that the first multi-stage cosmic rocket, which became the first man-made planet of the solar system, was launched by the Soviet Union. And it is the Soviet Union which is constantly demonstrating to the world its indisputable superiority in this field of science and technology. Nor is it accidental that President Eisenhower in his *State of the Union* Message admitted that "the recent Soviet accomplishments in this particular technology are indeed brilliant".⁷

To speak of establishing American control over outer space in these circumstances is unwise, to say the least.

THE U.S. PRESS reports that a ramified system of institutions, directly or indirectly connected with space research for military purposes, has been built up in the United States. The system was rounded out in 1958, when U.S. Congress passed a special Bill on astronautics and space research.

The National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC) under the U.S. President is the central

agency governing all the committees and services connected with cosmonautical research. The council consists of the U.S. President, the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of State, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, the chief of the special National Aeronautics and Space Administration and a number of others, including representatives of the big monopolies producing space equipment. The President is the chairman of the council. NASC is likened for the extent of its powers to the National Security Council which, in fact, is the supreme governmental body in the United States.

The National Aeronautics and Space Council has under its jurisdiction two main bodies: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Under the law, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is in charge of all governmental programmes in space research, except activities pertaining to the development of weapons systems, military operations, the defence of the United States, or closely related spheres. The Advanced Research Projects Agency has been set up under the U.S. Department of Defence and is in charge of military space research.

But such a division between civilian and military researches is very relative. We are told by Air Force that "both ARPA and NASA have working relationship with the three military services and ... hardware research facilities"; the one and the other fill orders of the Defence Department.⁸

NASA and ARPA maintain a large scientific and technical staff and a big number of laboratories and research centres. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration alone has a scientific, engineering and administrative staff of about 8,000 people, and its budget for 1959-60 is $485 million. The Advanced Research Projects Agency is to spend $455 million in the 1959-60 fiscal year.⁹ But outlays for space research cannot be separated from outlays on rocket weapons. In the last 12 months, the United States has spent no less than $4,000 million on missiles and space research.¹⁰ Under the 1959-60 budget about $7,000 million¹¹ is being earmarked for the guided missiles programme. Over 5,500 American firms are working on 30 missile and 20 space equipment programmes.¹²

What are the main trends of military space exploration in the United States? What are the

⁵ Air Force, Apr. 1958, p. 80.

⁶ Ibid., p. 83.

⁷ New York Times, Jan. 10, 1959.

⁸ Air Force, Feb. 1959, p. 67.

⁹ Missiles and Rockets, Feb. 2, 1959, p. 21.

¹⁰ U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 2, 1959, p. 44.

¹¹ Ibid., Jan. 16, 1959, p. 61.

¹² Ibid., Jan. 2, 1959, p. 45.

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INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, MAY 1959

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plans of the U.S. military command in this sphere?

On February 2, 1959, President Eisenhower sent to Congress a special message summing up the results of American space research in 1958 and outlining some projects for the next few years. Among them he mentioned also some developments contained in the military space research programme. It goes without saying that the main projects in this field are kept secret and nothing is said about them either in the President's message or in the press. But whatever has reached the public reveals the large scale of investigations related to the military use of outer space.

Brig.-Gen. H. A. Boushey, Director of Advanced Technology of the U.S. Air Force, speaking before the House Astronautics and Space Exploration Committee, presented the table of projected space research. According to this table in the next ten years the following space missions are contemplated to be achieved: the launching of surveying, scouting, navigation, communication and weather reporting satellites, manned space vehicles, military space vehicles, an "all purpose" space station, etc.¹³

The table shows that main U.S. efforts in cosmic exploration are concentrated on projects which are primarily of military nature and are aimed chiefly at using outer space for war purposes.

Let us briefly discuss some of these projects, beginning with the American cosmic rocket. According to the U.S. press on March 3, 1959, a container with scientific instrumentation, named Pioneer and weighing 5.9 kilograms, was launched with a Juno rocket system in the direction of the Moon from Cape Canaveral. It may be recalled that the last stage of the Soviet cosmic rocket weighed 1,472 kilograms without fuel and carried a large package of scientific instruments. The press reported that the Juno is a four-stage rocket system using as its basis the Jupiter IRBM and capped with three stages, each consisting in turn of a Sergeant solid-propellant rockets cluster.

Roy W. Johnson,¹⁴ head of the Defence Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, stated that in the next few years the launching of cosmic rockets would be based on the use of the Thor, Jupiter, Atlas and Titan¹⁵ ballistic missiles. Simultaneously, work is under way to

develop rocket engines with a thrust more powerful than that of the above-mentioned missiles. For instance, ARPA is engaged in designing a single-chamber rocket engine with a thrust of 1.5 million lbs. Besides, designing of a train of boosters on the basis of the Atlas rocket engines with a similar total thrust of 1.5 million lbs. was started in August 1958 under the guidance of the same agency.

Speaking on January 30 in New York, Johnson gave the following description of the rocket engines available in the United States. The Thor and Jupiter, he said, have a thrust of about 150,000 lbs. and can launch into outer space a payload of approximately 2,000 lbs. The Atlas and Titan can launch a payload of some 4,000 lbs. These capabilities are regarded to be insufficient for carrying out all the space exploration plans of the Defence Department. That is why the Advanced Research Projects Agency means to use the Atlas as the first stage and to develop high-energy liquid fuel for the engine of the last stage, so as to be able to launch a payload of up to five tons. This system, according to U.S. estimates, would inject into orbit a satellite weighing up to 10,000 lbs. at a height of 300 miles. As for the 1.5 million lbs. thrust engine mentioned earlier, according to Johnson, with an Atlas second stage and a high-energy third stage, it can place a 25,000-pound manned space station into orbit or can launch a manned vehicle to circumnavigate the Moon and return.

It is thought that it will take a few years to develop such an engine.

Plans for the military use of outer space lay considerable emphasis on so-called communication satellites. The need for launching such satellites is motivated by the essential shortcomings of the existing system of communication between American military bases in foreign territories and between the command of these bases and the Pentagon, and, what is most important, by its being unreliable. It is specifically stressed that ground and underwater telephone lines and cables can easily be rendered inoperative. They are subjected to continuous interference and their operation is involved. A communication satellite is to provide a reliable system of military radio link. Flying over a surface radio station, such a satellite automatically records its broadcasts and relays them on command from the ground to another station. Such a satellite can also be used for telecasting. Eisenhower's special message to Congress pointed out that communication satellites are to be launched in 1959.

¹³ U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 6, 1959, p. 103.

¹⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 101.

¹⁵ The Thor and Jupiter are intermediate-range ballistic missiles (2,500 km.); the Atlas and Titan are inter-continental ballistic missiles (8,000-10,000 km.).—Ed.

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In 1960 or 1961, the United States intends to launch a so-called stationary communication satellite. Flying at an altitude of about 36,000 km., such a satellite will make one revolution around the Earth in 24 hours and, owing to the Earth's rotation, will all the time remain approximately over the same spot of the Earth's surface. Pentagon specialists figure that three such satellites, appropriately placed, can ensure reliable communications between all points of the globe.

For the next few years the development of scouting satellites should be regarded as the main trend in U.S. military uses of outer space. General White said that "the first and most obvious military usage of outer space is for reconnaissance. . . . Eyes in outer space will keep us informed of all movement on the Earth's surface. Mapping accuracy will be increased greatly. Military targets throughout the world will be plotted with greater precision."¹⁶

The U.S. military command has for a long time been trying to use air space for reconnaissance in the Soviet Union and other Socialist countries. There have been repeated intrusions into Soviet air space by U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, and American balloons with cameras and radio equipment have been launched in the direction of our territory.

As early as 1956, the American press published data about a projected satellite, named the Big Brother,¹⁷ later renamed the Pied Piper. It is designed for reconnoitring with optical, radar and infra-red equipment. It is claimed that such a satellite detects not only large objectives (for example, a big city), but also large airfields and military bases. It could be particularly useful for the more accurate firing of ballistic missiles. The American press stressed that the launching of such a scouting satellite would be kept secret; it would emit no signals while flying over foreign territory.

There is also the Sentry project, which calls for the launching from the Vandenberg Air Force Base of a satellite with cameras in 1959 or 1960 for the express purpose of photographing major administrative and industrial objects in the Soviet Union and the other Socialist countries.¹⁸ There are evidently many other projects kept secret, of which the press knows nothing. In any case, a considerable part of funds allotted for space exploration goes to the development of scouting satellites.

An important place in the programme for the military use of outer space is held by so-called weather reporting satellites, designed for a rapid transmission of data about the weather on a considerable part of the Earth's surface. Such satellites, the Presidential message to Congress pointed out, will play a big part in providing reliable weather forecasts for military operations. It is held that they will be particularly valuable in supplying meteorological data for operations of the Air Force, chiefly the Strategic Air Command. The development of such satellites was started in the United States as early as 1955, and Vanguard II, launched in February 1959, is the first of them. Four more are to be launched this year.

Work is also under way on navigation satellites. Their aim is to create a reliable system, functioning accurately in any weather conditions, for finding bearings in the air and sea in any part of the world. The American military press stresses that information furnished by such satellites will be of great importance for naval and air force operations. "In using satellites for navigation," Johnson noted, "we are really taking advantage of the satellites' similarity to the stars, which, as you know, have for a long time been important to navigational systems. The important difference, however, is that a satellite can be fitted out with a radio source, which can be heard and detected by any airplane, ship, or other object on the surface of the Earth at any time of day or night and in good or bad weather. We would hope to have the initial system in operation within the next two years or so."¹⁹ Such satellites, naturally, are also of great importance for peaceful navigation. But it is characteristic that in the United States they are designated first and foremost for military purposes, to facilitate naval and air force operations. Nor is it fortuitous that work on such satellites has been turned over completely to the U.S. Defence Department.

The aim of several U.S. projects is to develop a special vehicle and equipment for sending man into outer space and bringing him back to earth. These projects, in the opinion of the American military command, are an integral and important element of the plan for winning "the capability to control outer space".

General White declared that "to control space we must not only be able to go through it with vehicles that travel from point to point, but we must be able to stay in space with

¹⁶ Air Force, Apr. 1958, p. 80.

¹⁷ American Aviation, Feb. 14, 1956, p. 4. Missiles and Rockets, Feb. 2, 1959, p. 35.

¹⁸ U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 2, 1959.

¹⁹ Ibid., Feb. 6, 1959, p. 102.

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human beings who can carry out jobs effi-
ciently”.²⁰

According to press reports, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration has a project for a special capsule which could be lifted by a rocket to a height of 200 kilometres, orbit the globe and return to earth with the help of a parachute. Work on such a system, according to American sources, will take about two years and the cost would be around $15 million.²¹ Test flights are to be made for this purpose this year by the X-15, the aircraft built by the North American Co. on orders of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and NASA. The plane is reported to have a maximum speed of about 6,000 km. per hour and a ceiling of around 160 km.²² Its cost was estimated at $120 million.²³

While on the subject of American military plans for outer space, mention must be made of the projects for manned space stations. It is expected that they will be put to many uses, including reconnaissance and observation with the help of telescopes and cameras. Moreover, these stations are believed to be used as mobile cosmic launching sites for missiles with atomic and thermo-nuclear warheads.

Much attention is given to designing vehicles for flights around the Moon and particularly for landing on the Moon. Although it is conceded that "the question of any nation's actually taking over the Moon was 'considerably distant',"²⁴ Pentagon leaders like to justify the huge expenses involved in the military exploration of outer space and also to fan the war psychosis by claiming at every possible point that the country which first succeeds in establishing control over the Moon will also control the Earth. Naturally, they think that the United States must be that country.

Such is the brief review of the main investiga-
tions conducted in the United States in order to
use outer space for military purposes. It goes
without saying that the review is far from
complete and fails to cover even part of what
is being done in the United States in this
respect. Moreover, not everything written in the
American press is to be trusted. Much of what
is published in the general press is aimed at
extolling American military strength, fanning
the war psychosis, and obtaining still bigger
military appropriations. At times untrue, fal-

sified data is published to misinform the public
about the actual state of affairs in this field.

By resorting to falsifications and frequently publishing obviously fantastic projects which are not only technically impossible but also have nothing in common with reality, U.S. propaganda does its utmost to blunt the tremendous impression created on world opinion by the first Soviet artificial earth satellites and the first Soviet space rocket, and also by the American failures in this field. It is trying to minimize the loss of prestige and to prove to the average American that technical supremacy is allegedly passing to the U.S.A.

But if we disregard all extraneous matter and
analyze properly the U.S. published informa-
tion we can get a sufficiently clear picture of
the extensive plans for the military use of outer
space nurtured by the American ruling circles.
It would be a grave mistake to underestimate
the scale of the work in this sphere and the
threat to peace inherent in the concentration of
effort on projects designed chiefly for war
purposes and for winning U.S. world
supremacy.

The Pentagon leaders not only actively plan to create special space vehicles for military uses. They have begun working out a "space strategy". In so doing, they proceed from the premise that the future war, as distinct from past wars, will be waged not only in three dimensions—on land, in the air and on sea—but also in a fourth dimension, outer space. More than that, they regard outer space the decisive one of these four dimensions. General Power, for example, asserts that the "present concept of three-dimensional warfare will eventually expand into what may be termed warfare in four dimensions, warfare in which the operational relationship between space and time will become the most critical factor".²⁵

Mention must also be made of the fact that
the possibilities of utilizing outer space for war
have again to a certain extent revived the reck-
less illusions of some U.S. military leaders,
especially as regards short wars and the
imaginary invulnerability of their country.

Lt.-Gen. Gavin in his article "Space Strategy and Defence of the Free World" in *Life* writes that during the Second World War "a tactical theatre usually consisted of a continent, or a major segment of a continent. By 1965, missiles and satellites will have shrunk the world to such an extent that 'militarily the Earth itself will be a tactical theatre.'"²⁶

²⁰ *Air Force*, Apr. 1958, pp. 80-83.

²¹ *U.S. News & World Report*, Jan. 23, 1959, p. 16.

²² *Air Force*, Nov. 1958, p. 85.

²³ *Aviation Magazine*, Jan. 1, 1959, p. 25.

²⁴ *New York Times*, March 7, 1959.

²⁵ *Air Force*, Nov. 1958, p. 81.

²⁶ *Life*, Sept. 15, 1958, p. 77.

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What conclusion does this general, considered one of the most prominent American military theorists, draw? He says that in view of this "the very nature of strategy will change, leaving the realm of physical combat to go into full-scale psychological warfare and leaving the Earth's environment to go into space".²⁷ It would seem that his conception is simple: direct battles will be fought in outer space. But that is not the case. Two paragraphs later he tells readers that in future "Europe and Africa together will form one tactical theatre". As for the American continent, he makes no mention of it.

It goes without saying that American strategists would like the United States to be invulnerable, to dominate outer space undividedly and to threaten the whole world from there with impunity. But this is beyond their powers.

"It is high time for the American strategists to give up the illusion that in the event of a military conflict the territory of the United States would remain invulnerable," N. S. Khru-shchov said in his concluding speech at the 21st Congress of the C.P.S.U. "For a long time now this does not accord with reality, and is nothing more than wishful thinking on the part of America's generals. In point of fact, the Soviet Union today has the means to deliver a crushing blow to the aggressor at any point of the globe."

Notwithstanding its obvious superiority in mastering outer space, the Soviet Union, guided by the interests of peace, is ready to conclude a broad agreement on the exclusion of outer space from the arms race. As early as March 1958, the Soviet Government proposed that the use of outer space for military purposes be

banned and that simultaneously the question of dismantling military bases on foreign territories be settled, so as to ensure broad international co-operation in the exploration and use of outer space only for peaceful purposes. The Soviet proposals rightly emphasized the intimate relation between the prohibition of outer space for military use and the shutting down of military bases in foreign territories. They also outlined realistic ways and means of achieving agreement on this score. In particular, the Soviet Union insists on banning atomic and nuclear weapons. If the latter proposal were accepted, this would of itself lead to a cardinal solution of the problem of prohibiting outer space for military use, because, in the ultimate count, it is not at all a matter of cosmic vehicles, but of their being used for delivering nuclear and thermo-nuclear missiles of tremendous explosive power.

In the meantime, the United States has, in effect, reduced the question of banning outer space for military use to the question of banning military vehicles that fly to their target via outer space. The purpose of this proposal is absolutely clear. The United States wants a ban on weapons which create a real threat of an immediate retaliatory blow against the American continent in the event the U.S.A. starts a war. By refusing to wind up its military bases around the Soviet Union and the other Socialist countries, these bases being a constant threat to peace, the United States raises obstacles that will be difficult to surmount in the way of the peaceful use of outer space.

Recent events have forcefully demonstrated the urgency and vital importance of Soviet proposals for the future of mankind. Cosmic space must be a realm of peace and scientific exploration and not of war.

²⁷ Ibid.

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