00:00On the 14th of September, the United States announced it had deployed weapons in space.
00:05The US said it had deployed these weapons to, quote, counter-hostile enemy action.
00:11Now, this is an extraordinary statement.
00:13It's the first time that a country has declared deploying weapons in space.
00:19Now, this means that the US has weapons in orbit around the Earth, which can attack satellites,
00:26space stations of other countries like Russia and China, possibly even hit targets on the ground.
00:34Now, the US hasn't clarified which weapons it has deployed in orbit.
00:39But we have a fair idea given recent technological advances in ASAP systems.
00:45Now, bear in mind that Russia and China also have such space-based weapons.
00:51But unlike the US, they are yet to declare them.
00:54What do these space-based weapons look like?
00:58Let's dive in.
01:00Now, space-based weapons are essentially of three types.
01:03The first are the Earth-to-space weapons.
01:06Now, these, as the title suggests, these are weapons that are launched from the Earth into outer space.
01:14And there are two types of these weapons.
01:15There are kinetic weapons that are launched from the ground, sea or air.
01:20And they are directed at objects in orbit.
01:23Now, examples of these include what are called direct ascent weapons, of the kind that India tested during Mission Shakti
01:312019.
01:33The US, Russia and China have also tested these kind of direct ascent systems.
01:38Satellites are destroyed in orbit.
01:41They generate space debris.
01:43It's harmful for the other satellites in orbit.
01:46Now, the non-kinetic or soft-kill weapons include ground-based jammers, laser dazzlers and carrying out cyber attacks against
01:56satellite networks.
01:57Now, the second category of weapons are what are called space-to-space weapons.
02:05Now, these are systems that are already in orbit and which act against other satellites.
02:12Satellites belonging to other countries which are also in orbit.
02:15Now, examples of these kinetic systems include what are called co-orbital anti-satellite systems or kamikaze satellites.
02:25Now, they collide and destroy other satellites.
02:29They, like the title suggests, they are kamikaze satellites.
02:33The former Soviet Union tested such satellites during the Cold War.
02:37And, more recently, there's a new class of what are called inspector or maintenance satellites.
02:45Now, these are dual-use satellites.
02:47They can carry out repairs in orbit.
02:50But, they are also designed to approach and manipulate enemy satellites in space.
02:56Now, these satellites can grab, pull, disassemble or cut the wires of hostile satellites, rendering them useless.
03:04They can also physically damage or disable critical components of enemy satellites, like sensors, solar panels, or radiators.
03:13Alternatively, they could also be used to obscure satellite sensors with paint or other materials.
03:21They can even blind targeted satellites or even fire shotgun pellet blasts at enemy satellites,
03:28which generate clouds of pellets, that are designed to kill or cripple satellites.
03:34Now, the non-kinetic space-to-space weapons include jammers, microwave weapons, directed energy systems, which remotely disable enemy satellites.
03:47And, finally, you have the third category of space weapons, which are space-to-earth weapons.
03:54Now, these are co-orbital weapons, which are designed to orbit around the Earth and attack targets on Earth.
04:02Now, both the Soviet Union and the United States researched such systems during the Cold War.
04:07The Pentagon's Golden Dome missile defense system, which is currently in development, which should be deployed in the next couple
04:14of years,
04:15envisages positioning space-based interceptors to shoot at ballistic missiles as soon as they are launched.
04:22Well, the weaponization of space has now officially begun and the era of Star Wars are now a reality.
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