WASHINGTON, March 21 (UPI) -- The head of U.S. Strategic Command said despite China's anti-satellite test and other worrying developments, space should not be militarized.
"Platforms costing billions of dollars to replace and the lives of astronauts from many nations are now at risk from debris left by China's recent ill-advised anti-satellite test," Marine Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright, commander of STRATCOM, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
China's provocative destruction of a satellite in space -- a January test of an anti-satellite ballistic missile -- raises the need to improve space surveillance to detect not just space junk but also to rapidly identify threats to space craft and where from they are originating.
"The United States considers space systems to have the right to pass through and peacefully operate in space witout interference, not unlike that of transit through international waters," he wrote in prepared testimony.
However, Cartwright does not advocate weapons in space.
"Just because there's a threat in space doesn't mean we have to respond in space," said "We don't need an arms race in space."
What Cartwright is looking for, however, is a new conventional global strike platform to take the place of long-range nuclear missiles. Few believe the United States would use a nuclear weapon to deter non-nuclear threats.
Neither will the United States "have forces in every place we need them at the crucial moment," states Cartwright's written testimony. "The capability we lack is the means to deliver prompt, precise, conventional kinetic effects at intercontinental ranges."
Cartwright wants Congress to fund a long-range global strike missile, deployable within two years of receiving the money. At the same time STRATCOM is investigating other land, sea and air-launched alternatives to be available as early as 2013 or after 2020.
