Armed Spacecraft

The Ottoman Empire, which reached the level of great power on a global scale in the 15th and 16th centuries; At that time, it reached the level of establishing a gigantic navy, which had the opportunity and ability to build 200 ships at the same time in the Istanbul shipyard. This production capacity made the Ottoman Navy an unrivaled power in the Mediterranean. In the face of the Ottoman Navy, the Portuguese and Spanish states, which could not exist in the Mediterranean to the extent they wanted, had to expand and therefore open to the oceans in order to increase their commercial incomes. The Ottoman Empire, which was content with the Mediterranean, saw that it was able to protect the Red Sea from Portuguese pirates by invading Arabia, and ultimately did not fulfill the need to go to the oceans, missed its age and had to hand over the Mediterranean to the conquerors of the oceans in time.

Our main purpose in expressing this example is; Our aim is to bring to the attention of our readers that what the 'ocean' meant to the past, the 'space' dimension means the same to humanity today. With one difference… No matter how vast the oceans are, after all, their borders are clear in every direction. However, space is an immense dimension that needs to be sailed to infinity.

Even if it is not in this infinite space, it would not be wrong to say that it will not be possible for countries that cannot make room for themselves in space even as much as the area they occupy on earth, to protect the area they occupy on earth in the near future. The flow of history that we tried to exemplify above whispers this to us. When the whisper turns into a sound, the bad luck of the Ottomans who missed the oceans may be the common truth of all the nations that missed the space.

War concepts developed in recent years also point to the need for the development of space capabilities. States have started to name the aviation industries as the aerospace industry in recent years. Military organizations have restructured the existing Air Force into the Aerospace Forces. Some countries acted with the need to establish Space Forces in addition to the Air Force. Because, in today's war concepts, to a certain extent in military doctrines, 'space size' is considered the most important force multiplier. Without space-based facilities and capabilities, it has become almost impossible to win any war on earth.

When we look at even the strategy games developed for commercial purposes, the global war is primarily fought and won in space. As it is known, building hegemony in today's world depends on dominating the oceans and especially holding critical straits. The great powers that want to dominate the universe in the world of tomorrow have considered it necessary to start the construction of power in the near space from today, and they have focused on space in this direction.

In this context, “Is the Space War Officially Started?” In our previous article, we stated that developed countries investing in space are currently working on the axes of attack and defense. An A satellite navigating in the orbit of our world will be able to be shot down by a ground-to-air missile from now on. The shooting test of the Russians on November 15, 2021 was proof of this. This means that everything in near space can now be hit, disabled. In this context, tests for hitting satellites with a missile launched from an aircraft in the air are continuing. The theoretical infrastructure of the attack from a satellite to another satellite has been completed. We know that the testing phase has not yet been passed.

It has been clearly understood that measures should be developed to prevent the satellites and platforms in orbit and the spacecraft in motion from being hit from the ground, from the air or from space. In order to protect satellites, space stations and space vehicles from anti-satellite weapons, searches for space shields, protection spheres, and means of guiding false targets have begun. Parallel to this, attempts are being made to hit the desired point on the earth from space by using platforms and vehicles stationed in space. In Space-Ground shootings, ammunition and weapons such as missiles, smart bombs, directed energy weapons and laser beams are used.
The Thor Project of the Americans, which was started in the 1950s, brought to the conceptual stage and later announced to be suspended, comes to mind as an example of studies in this direction. Futuristic works such as 'God sticks' have not yet been brought to the testing stage. Adding ammunition stations to space vehicles or large satellites is possible in the short term and will be sufficient to serve the desired purposes to a certain extent. Bombs or missiles, which will be made to fall 'free' with the command to be given to the satellite systems from the ground, will be able to hit the desired target with the precision of a smart bomb dropped from the aircraft, with the data guidance to be transmitted from the mission computers to the smart kits on the bomb.

Even bombs with pre-loaded target data or A missiles will be able to reach their target from the air, similar to the use of cruise missiles on the ground, the images transmitted from the camera on the bomb/missile head can be monitored by the operations centers in space or on the ground, and it will be possible to direct them to another target even while cruising. The biggest constraint here is the need for kinetic energy to provide orientation from space to the ground and the additional costs of bomb stations and the design of purpose-built armed satellites or space platforms in line with this new need.

With so many satellites in orbit around the Earth, equipping one of them with a weapon ready to shoot at the world seems feasible as a concept. Under treaties such as the Outer Space Treaty, which ban weapons of mass destruction in orbit, tests of weapons from Space to Ground cannot be conducted. However, there are posts on various platforms implying that the trials within this scope are still being carried out by respecting confidentiality.

Rather than satellites, similar to passenger planes, it is a relatively easy and feasible option to transform space shuttle-like spacecraft, which takes off from an airport and completes its journey by landing at the airport at the end of the mission, into an armed space platform at the same time. It is possible for space shuttles, similar to warplanes, to carry bombs or missiles in their internal compartments, to deploy in space as an armed platform, to perform navigational missions, and to perform a Space-Ground attack when necessary.

As a matter of fact, there are even projects that have been implemented in this direction. For example, in a Technology Report video shared by the American Air Force in 2015, the conceptual ideas of the space platform about bombing from space, interfering with enemy satellites, making reconnaissance or doing all of these at the same time were shared. This spacecraft, named X-37B (experimental-experimental), continues to be used by the American Air Force, 'denying' that it is an "armed platform". According to the claim of the American Air Force, the X-37B; It carries out space flights in order to test the technologies required for newly designed spacecraft in space beforehand. The American approach to this issue is based on not facing a situation contrary to the Outer Space Treaty. In addition, it is considered important for the USA not to disturb other countries that already have satellites and platforms in space and not to shoot arrows. In any case, the X-37B is a space combat platform and, in our opinion, nothing more than a space version of warplanes in the sky.

It is also evaluated that advanced versions of the X-37B, if used in "earth protection" missions in space, could continue to be in space without raising concerns in other countries. For example, preemptive space strikes by X-37B counterparts on asteroids and meteorites approaching Earth, which scientists have confirmed by calculations of "early impact hazard", can be successfully carried out in open space.

Although peaceful uses similar to this scenario are possible, witnessing the mutual warfare of the parties that see each other as a threat in space is also among the possibilities. This possibility, which will carry the war on earth to space, will bring new military needs to the agenda. Armed spacecraft will be the indispensable military needs of the future for any independent state seeking to protect its 'space domain' and its borders on earth. Bombarding targets on the ground from space would eliminate the danger of warplanes being exposed to fire from enemy air defense weapon systems. Enemy defense systems will be neutralized by shots from space or electronic attacks, so that the side using space can gain air superiority without losing almost any aircraft. Afterwards, with the effective support of the air force, the naval and land elements will be able to reach the depths of the enemy more easily than today, with very little loss, and the success of the deep operation will automatically increase.

As a result, the space dimension, besides serving peaceful purposes, has the capacity to offer military advantages in a possible war, to a certain extent, to the party that will gain space supremacy so that it can be the decisive winner of the war on earth. Spy satellites have been used by states for surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence purposes for decades. In the next few decades, space wars are poised to invade Earth's agenda. The days when alliances will be established between countries in space or when space will be included in alliance structures on earth are near. Countries that miss space will have to seek a space umbrella for themselves, similar to the protection umbrella of their nuclear-armed allies.