John C. Wright - Deep Space Warfare

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-3784-6

2020 John C. Wright. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover image by Anton Chernigovskii (Shutterstock)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

To the giants on whose shoulders we all stand

This book would not have been possible without a host of individuals and groups who contributed immeasurably to my education. First, I am immensely grateful to the faculty and library staff at Air University, Air Command and Staff College for their tremendous advice, interpretations, and sound wisdom concerning this work. Major Brent Ziarnick, USAFR, was essential to this works completion by providing solid feedback and lending me his extensive space knowledge, especially regarding spaces influence on economics. Colonel M.V. Coyote Smith, USAF (ret.), was always willing to listen and to help refine my broader thoughts on space and its applicability to international relations. USAF Lieutenant Colonel Pete Garrisons healthy obsession with space attack provided excellent inspiration for this works writing on space dominance and planetary invasion. Major Sam Kriegler, U.S. Army, offered me his superb insight and useful sanity checks for the manuscript, not to mention a critical eye from a sister service with comparatively little space responsibilities. Finally, the United States Air Force must be thanked, not only for giving me the opportunity to meet these tremendous scholars and warriors, but for the various opportunities I have been given which have made me a better officer and thinker, and ultimately led to this work.

I must also thank the legions of friends and colleagues who encouraged me along the way to continue writing, despite the awkwardness which always comes with writing about a subject with which one is not at first completely familiar. As a combat pilot, writing about space was intimidating both because there is so much to learn about the subject, and because I know there are multitudes of space professionals ready and willing to pounce on my conclusions and make short work of them. Nevertheless, I owe them my gratitude as well, not only for their critical eye but also for their willingness to stand up and fight for the right mix of military strategy, policy, and technology to meet the nations imminent space challenges.

Lastly, I have profound gratitude for my family. They can never be adequately repaid for the time and inspiration they have given me. I was able to complete this work only through their encouragement and support.

I have done my best to represent space, military strategy, and all that comes with it as accurately and honestly as I could, but no doubt there will be misrepresentations and mistakes found in this work with such a contentious topic. All errors or misinterpretations in this volume are mine.

In 1911, the airplane was in its infancy. Before the Great War broke out, a few military airmen were able to explore this wondrous new technology, but most ordinary people were acquainted with the air via the tame and well-established hot air balloon. For those who stumbled upon a hot air balloon ride, many became entranced by the calm smoothness of a basket-encapsulated ascent, the sight of their home from the air, and were no doubt surprised at the unexpectedly gentle travel afforded by light breezes, further placated by the stillness that comes without engine noise. Flight seemed more like a holiday than a weapon. As the airplane became militarized, as nearly all technology inevitably is, this harmonious environment gave way to a third dimension for the modern battlefield, replete with fervent competition for the high ground via aircraft that flew higher, faster, and with as much weaponry as could be carried. A final plea for the airs innocence was given on the eve of World War I by the English novelist John Galsworthy, who implored the military via the London Times in 1911:

If ever men presented a spectacle of sheer inanity it is nowwhen, having at long last triumphed in their struggle to subordinate to their welfare the unconquered element, they have straightway commenced to defile that element, so heroically mastered, by filling it with engines of destruction. Is there any thinker alive watching this utterly preventable calamity without horror and despair? Horror at what must come of it if not promptly stopped; despair that men can be so blind, so hopelessly and childishly the slaves of their own marvellous inventive powers. For the love of the sun, and the stars, and the blue sky, that have given us all our aspirations since the beginning of time, let us leave the air to innocence!

His pleas, while appealing to humanitys reason, fell short of humanitys ambition.

There is an analogue between the airplane and the spacecraft. As of this writing, the spacecraft is the primary dominion of the government. It exists only to prove to our species that we can get to space and use it; nothing more. Everything else that space technology has accomplished thus far, including the so-far brief and rudimentary exploration of our solar system, the best telescopes our species has produced, and even our nascent satellite network around this planet, all exist to better our lives on the surface; to watch, intimidate, or destroy our enemies; or, in the very near future, to carry exceptionally rich tourists to lower earth orbit. In the end, however, space will be weaponized. At that time there may be an outspoken advocate like Mr. Galsworthy, but the seduction of the high ground, regardless of form, will always attract military strategistsand their innovations. While the time for planetary combat is not yet upon us, interplanetary and interstellar warfares future form is worth examining.

This book was written to seriously examine the military consequences of humanitys eventual weaponization and warfare activities in deep space. It was written for audiences in military, academic, and policy spheres, as well as citizens interested in realistically examining space warfare away from the diversionary pleasures of science fiction. It is a product of the authors imagination, military experience and love of science and space, and borrows heavily from his education as an Air Force officer. It is the authors hope that this book, and others which will surely follow, will encourage national policymakers, legislators, and military professionals to view space as a warfighting domain which will shortly be fully weaponized, and which is deserving of special attention before formulating appropriate space policy and strategy. Above all, it aims to convince this audience space warfare is closer than we think, and consider the implications of being unready to tackle its challenges in a sober manner divorced of the traditional derision that comes with thinking about space warfare. While it attempts to address seriously the future military problems sure to be found during our interstellar adventures, it was also enjoyable and fun to write.