Space warfare
Space warfare is combat in which one or more belligerents are in outer space. The scope of space warfare includes ground-to-space warfare, such as attacking satellites from the Earth; space-to-space warfare, such as satellites attacking satellites; and space-to-ground warfare, such as satellites attacking Earth-based targets. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forms the basis of space law; it prohibits permanent basing of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons in space and the military use of celestial bodies, but does not prohibit the military use of Earth orbit or military space forces. Independent space forces are operated by the United States and China. Russia operates significant space assets under the Russian Space Forces.
The Cold War prompted the start of the militarization of space. Military satellites have been launched since the late 1950s, for communications, navigation, reconnaissance and munitions guidance. The Gulf War is sometimes called the "first space war" for the US' use of these capabilities. The use of Starlink satellites by Ukraine has played a major role in the Russian-Ukrainian War.
The US and Soviet Union carried out nine nuclear explosions in space from 1958 to 1962, which damaged satellites. Orbital space weapons were developed, especially for defence against nuclear missiles, but not widely deployed. The US Strategic Defense Initiative studied satellite-mounted advanced weaponry, drawing criticism as the "Star Wars program". The Soviet Union developed Istrebitel Sputnikov co-orbital weapons, Almaz military space stations, and the Polyus laser. Since 2025, the US has been developing the Golden Dome missile defense system, which includes orbital weapons.
Ballistic missiles, which transit the upper atmosphere and sometimes outer space, have been used in combat since Germany's V-2 rocket during World War II. These were used on a large scale in the Iran–Iraq War, Gulf War, Red Sea crisis, and Iran–Israel war. In November 2023, Israel claimed an interception of a Houthi ballistic missile as the first combat in space.
Four nations have tested anti-satellite missiles by destroying a target satellite: the US' ASM-135 in 1985 and SM-3 in 2008, China's SC-19 in 2007, India's PDV Mark II in 2019, and Russia's A-235 in 2021. Israel's Arrow 3 missile may also have an anti-satellite capability.
History
1950s
During the early Cold War, a survivable reconnaissance asset was considered highly valuable. In a time before satellites, this meant building an aircraft that could fly higher or faster, or both, compared to any interceptor that would try to bring it down. Notably, the United States would introduce the U-2 spy plane in 1956. It was thought, at the time of its introduction, that the plane’s service ceiling of would render it immune to Soviet aircraft, missiles, and radar. That was the case until the 1960 U-2 incident, where a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defense Forces’ S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory.Three years before the incident, in 1957, a modified R-7 rocket carried the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into an orbit hundreds of kilometers above sea level, notably beyond the reach of any existing weapons system. While Sputnik 1 held no military value, only transmitting radio signals back to Earth for three weeks, its launch sparked the beginning of the Space Race. This spurred the United States to hasten and re-emphasize its space programs, culminating in the Explorer program, which launched the first American satellite into orbit in 1958. In tandem with the effort to achieve superior spaceflight capability over the other, the United States and the Soviet Union began to develop space warfare capabilities.
1960s
Early efforts to conduct space warfare were directed at space-to-space warfare, as ground-to-space systems were considered to be too slow and too isolated by Earth's atmosphere and gravity to be effective at the time. The history of active space warfare development goes back to the 1960s when the Soviet Union began the Almaz project, a project designed to give them the ability to do on-orbit inspections of satellites and destroy them if needed. Similar planning in the United States took the form of the Blue Gemini project, which consisted of modified Gemini capsules that would be able to deploy weapons and perform surveillance.One early test of electronic space warfare, the so-called Starfish Prime test, took place in 1962 when the United States exploded a ground-launched nuclear weapon in space to test the effects of an electromagnetic pulse. The result was a deactivation of many then-orbiting satellites, both American and Soviet. The deleterious and unfocused effects of the EMP test led to the banning of nuclear weapons in space in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.
In the early 1960s, the U.S. military produced a film called Space and National Security which depicted space warfare.
The Soviet Union tested the Istrebitel Sputnikov co-orbital satellite weapons from 1968 to 1982.
1970s–1990s
Through the 1970s, the Soviet Union continued their project and test-fired a cannon to test space station defense. This was considered too dangerous to do with a crew on board, however, so the test was conducted after the crew had returned to Earth.A 1976 Soviet report suggested that the design of the Space Shuttle had been guided by a requirement to deliver a payload- such as a bomb- over Russia and return to land after a single orbit. This may have been a confusion based on requirements 3A and 3B for the shuttle's design, which required the craft to be able to deploy or retrieve an object from a polar orbit in a single pass.
Both the Soviets and the United States developed anti-satellite weaponry designed to shoot down satellites. While early efforts paralleled other space-to-space warfare concepts, the United States was able in the 1980s to develop ground-to-space laser anti-satellite weapons. None of these systems are known to be active today; however, a less powerful civilian version of the ground-to-space laser system is commonly used in the astronomical technique of adaptive optics.
In 1984, the Strategic Defence Initiative was proposed. It was nicknamed Star Wars after the popular science fiction franchise Star Wars.
In 1985, the United States demonstrated its conventional ASAT capabilities by launching an ASM-135 ASAT from an F-15 to shoot down the Solwind P78-1, an American research satellite, from its orbit.
The 1990–1991 Gulf War is sometimes called the "first space war" for its usage of satellite communication, navigation, reconnaissance, and weapons guidance.
Since 2000
The People's Republic of China successfully tested a ballistic missile-launched anti-satellite weapon on January 11, 2007. This resulted in harsh criticism from the United States of America, Britain, and Japan.The U.S. developed an interceptor missile, the SM-3, testing it by hitting ballistic test targets while they were in space. On February 21, 2008, the U.S. used an SM-3 missile to destroy a spy satellite, USA-193, while it was 247 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean.
In 2009, the chairman of the Israel Space Agency said the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile could be used as an anti-satellite weapon. The missile was declared operational in 2017.
Japan fields the U.S.-made SM-3 missile, and there have been plans to base the land-based version in Romania and Vietnam.
In March 2019, India shot down a satellite orbiting in a low Earth orbit using an ASAT missile during an operation code named Mission Shakti, thus making its way to the list of space warfare nations, establishing the Defense Space Agency the following month, followed by its first-ever simulated space warfare exercise on July 25 which would inform a joint military space doctrine.
In July 2019, Emmanuel Macron "called for a space high command to protect" France's satellites. This was followed by a plan released by military officials. French Defense Minister, Florence Parly, announced a space weapons program that would move the country's space surveillance strategy towards active protection of its assets in space, e.g., satellites. The projects outlined include: patrolling nano-satellites swarms, ground-based laser systems to blind spying satellites, and machine guns mounted on satellites.
Starlink, SpaceX's large low Earth orbit satellite constellation, was extensively used for warfare following Russia's invasion of Ukraine after the country's previous satcom provider Viasat were cyberattacked in the first few days of the invasion. Starlink was used for defense and attacks on Russian positions, with Starlink terminals being namely strapped on strike drones and sea drones. SpaceX vowed and acted against the use of their Starlink service for active warfare, while Russia launched cyberattacks against Starlink and threatened of striking Starlink satellites directly in retaliation.
On October 31, 2023, as part of the Gaza war, Israel intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile with its Arrow 2 missile defense system. According to Israeli officials, the interception occurred above Earth's atmosphere above the Negev Desert, making it the first instance of space combat in history.
On November 21, 2024, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia launched a new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, striking Dnipro. Ukraine's air force initially claimed an intercontinental ballistic missile was used, and Ukrainian media initially reported it was an RS-26 Rubezh ICBM with range 5,800 km. The US and Russia confirmed it was intermediate-range, but the Pentagon stated it was based on the RS-26 ICBM. It was fired from the Astrakhan region 700 km away. Analysts stated the missile used a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, likely marking their first use in combat. The night attack was reported to see six sequential vertical flashes, each comprising a cluster of up to six individual projectiles. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called the use of the intermediate-range weapon "concerning and worrying".
As of 2025, space situational awareness is generally limited between countries. Countries rely on doctrinal statements, media reports, international treaties and codes of conduct, and the like to signal their approaches to the development and use of counterspace capabilities.