The Relationship of ASAT and BMD Systems

Public opinion and policy leadership today insist on merging anti-satellite weapons and ballistic missile defenses under the general rubric of "Star Wars." But how accurate is it to treat ASAT and BMD as but two facets of a single security problem? At their earliest beginnings more than thirty years ago, ASAT and BMD were treated as naturally related security concerns, for the simple reason that missiles and satellites were both viewed as extensions of the long-range aircraft as a means of strategic attack. But in the intervening decades, ASAT and BMD programs have gone their separate ways. Satellites evolved to carry sensors and radio transponders, not nuclear warheads, while ICBMs have remained faithful descendants of the strategic bomber. ASAT and BMD therefore came to respond to distinct military missions and to pose distinct arms-control problems. There are sound reasons for public policy to treat them separately.

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