The US Department of Defense is looking for a contractor to develop its own orbital station. Applications will be accepted until July 9th. This is stated in the tender posted on the Pentagon’s Department of Defense Innovation Division.

“The US Department of Defense is looking for projects of an autonomous orbital station. The project should support the assembly in space, conducting experiments with microgravity, logistics and storage, production, training, evaluation tests, placement of the payload and other functions. Projects must be launched into low Earth orbit within 24 months from the date of the contract and have guidance, navigation and control systems for long-term autonomous work, ”reads the document with which RT was familiarized.

"Not just fiction"

According to analysts of the American portal Breaking Defense, based on the main requirements of the customer, we can conclude that we are talking about an uninhabited station with an internal volume of not more than 1 cu. m and a mass payload of 80 kg. However, this object may well become the basis for a larger orbital station with a crew on board.

For example, in the US Department of Defense application, the list of "desired future capabilities (available as options at the initial or future implementation stage)" refers to the implementation of "temporary or permanent docking with other modular stations of the same type (manned or unmanned)", as well as for transportation of people ”,“ the possibility of changing the orbit ”and“ ensuring radiation resistance for use outside the low near-earth orbit ”- that is, at a distance of more than 2 thousand km from the Earth.

According to Breaking Defense, the Pentagon’s plans demonstrate that the prospects for the emergence in space of American servicemen both at special stations in Earth orbit and in the space between the Earth and the Moon are "no longer just science fiction."

As a military expert, head of the department of political science and sociology of the Russian Economic University named after G.V. Plekhanov Andrei Koshkin, the project of the space station of the US Department of Defense resembles the program of "star wars" of Ronald Reagan's times. Then, within the framework of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SOI) project, the United States considered the possibility of deploying military installations in space designed to destroy Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“This is a“ star wars ”project. That is, we are talking about a space platform on which installations for attack from space will be placed. For example, nuclear-powered lasers or rockets, ”suggested Koshkin.

In turn, the expert of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, Alexey Leonkov, believes that the United States does not have a wealth of experience in creating its own space stations. The most ambitious project - the Freedom station - appeared just at the time of the Reagan SDI as a response to the Soviet "Peace". But this project, which involved the participation of European and American allies, was never fully implemented. The remnants of the development of that time - the American segment of the International Space Station (ISS).

  • ISS
  • © NASA / Roscosmos

“If the Pentagon interferes in the affairs of the orbital stations, it means that the station will have a purely military purpose. All experiments on its board will be carried out in the interests of the Pentagon. And it is clear that this project will not be international, ”says Leonkov.

According to military expert Yuri Knutov, the station can also be used to control other space objects. For example, the orbital plane of the USAF Air Force Boeing X-37, about the tasks of which in space the Pentagon does not cover.

“If you connect these two projects, then everything falls into place,” asserts Knutov. - This station will control the actions of such ships as the Boeing X-37, which will wage war in space. The station can become a command and control center for the deployment of space weapons. ”

To the moon and beyond

Since the times of the Cold War, the United States space military programs officially do not involve the creation of manned orbital combat stations. However, the current president, Donald Trump, advocates that within the framework of the US Armed Forces, space forces function as a separate type of armed forces.

Last December, he signed a decree creating the Space Command at the Pentagon. In addition, the administration has repeatedly stated the need to overcome the alleged gap between Russia and China in the use of outer space for military purposes. In preparation for a more intensive use of space, the US Air Force even developed a special training mobile application for combat pilots.

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier stated that they were ready for a dialogue on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the United States is hindering the development of an international agreement that would stop the militarization of space.

“This scenario as a whole was expected, taking into account the US line to ensure its unilateral domination in space by any means, which, in particular, is evidenced by Washington’s decision to deploy missile defense components in near-Earth space by 2030,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

  • US President Donald Trump
  • Reuters
  • © Carlos Barria

Formally, the United States, like other parties to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, can create military stations in near-earth orbit. International law prohibits placing in space only weapons of mass destruction, as well as the use of the moon and other celestial bodies for military purposes. However, the militarization of space does not contribute to the reduction of international tensions, experts say.

In addition, the Pentagon is openly exploring plans for military expansion beyond the limits of Earth’s orbit. Thus, in a joint report published in May by the US Air Force Research Laboratory and the Experimental Directorate of Defense Innovations, it is stated that in the medium and long term (5 years or more) the development and deployment of systems and tools in space will have two incentives: the need of the armed forces to expand the basing and activities of critical objects in the circumlunar space in order to reduce the capabilities of our opponents in detecting and attacking these objects our capabilities and the reduction of our opponents' ability to use force through space, from space and in space. The second impetus is the need to create adequate infrastructure and facilities for returning, and then for the permanent US presence on the Moon and beyond. ”

However, the deployment of the US military base on the moon would be a direct violation of the 1967 treaty, experts say.

“The United States threatens international security because it does not reckon with international legal documents restricting the withdrawal of weapons into outer space,” Koshkin said. “The next step is to put nuclear weapons into space.”

Adequate answer

As the first deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, Victor Posnir, noted earlier, the deployment of American weapons in space can be sent to launch a preemptive strike on Russia, China or any other state and to destroy ballistic missiles in the early stages of flight.

  • Victor Posnir
  • RIA News
  • © Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The adoption of the Sarmat and Avangard complexes capable of overcoming the US global missile defense system was named as an adequate response by Moscow.

In turn, the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Valery Gerasimov noted that Moscow would respond with “mirror and asymmetric measures” to the deployment of American weapons in space.

"The US military space plans are a danger to all countries," says Koshkin. “Russia will have to respond with its space program, which will neutralize such a threat.”

According to Alexei Leonkov, there are two directions to counteract the plans of the Americans. The first is diplomatic - increasing international pressure on the United States. The second - military-technical - strengthening its own defense capabilities.

“At one time we conducted many experiments in space, including in the interests of the defense,” recalls Leonkov. - In the USSR, they created the Almaz military orbital stations. All projects we can revive and even improve. Russia can repeat the breakthrough that we have achieved in the field of hypersound in space. ”