Going Forward - GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones - page 192

and maneuver near their targets to destroy them with shrapnel. 56 Operational
versions of the system flew through 1983. The United States countered with
Project saint (short for satellite interceptor), designed to inspect enemy sat-
ellites with television cameras, but canceled the program in 1963. 57 The United
States conducted one test in 2005 of a satellite called the Demonstration for
Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (dart), which featured similar capa-
bilities. 58 A navigation error caused it to bump its target, a defunct communi-
cations satellite, into a different orbit without destruction or creation of debris. 59
The Defense Department's Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security
Developments Involving the People's Republic of China in May 2012 expressed
unease about its microsatellite program. The report listed direct-ascent mis-
siles, jamming, lasers, microwaves, and cyber weapons among China's counter-
space capabilities and added, “Over the past two years, China has also
conducted increasingly complex close proximity operations between satellites
while offering little in the way of transparency or explanation.” 60
U.S. Navy commander John J. Klein, in Space Warfare: Strategy, Principles
and Policy , hypothesizes that lesser space powers might contest command of
space by locating microsatellites near gps or gnss satellites or even by attach-
ing parasitic microsatellites to them, making defensive targeting difficult or
impossible without destroying the navigation satellite itself. 61 A nation pursu-
ing such a strategy need not arm the microsatellites with explosives; it might
simply move them close enough to jam or block the transmitted signals or
attach them physically to the satellite's antennas. 62 Deploying such microsat-
ellites might gain their sponsor political influence without their ever being
used. The strategy of using mere presence to influence policies of a dominant
power is not new, Klein points out. The European Union achieved greater say
in the allocation of radio spectrum by proposing to overlay gps signals with
Galileo. 63 Since Klein published his book, China demonstrated the same strat-
egy by appropriating a frequency Galileo planned to use.
Lesser space powers are growing in number and capability and staking out
their own presence in space. India successfully tested its Agni-V missile in April
2012, sending it to an altitude of about 373 miles. The head of India's Defence
Research and Development Organization said the missile “ushered in fantas-
tic opportunities in, say, building asat weapons and launching mini/micro
satellites on demand.” 64 He added that India did not plan to put weapons in
space but had to “re-think” asat capability after China's 2007 demonstra-
tion. 65 Iran announced in June 2012 that it was completing work on a new space