Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC TV
THE NATIONAL ( 10:00 PM ET )
August 8, 2001, Wednesday
Battleground Space
ANCHORS: PETER MANSBRIDGEPETER MANSBRIDGE: Well U.S. President George W. Bush has made it one of his diplomatic priorities -- selling his plan for a missile defence system to the rest of the world. Yesterday, opposition politicians in this country came off their summer break to talk about what Canada's position should be. But in the end, all the talk might not add up to much. Washington appears determined to press ahead. Here's an encore presentation of a documentary by Dan Bjarnason.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (1): That was mission control. Ten, nine...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (2): Missile away. Missile away.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (3): Roger missile away.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (4): Can I get a 120 on a 29, please?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (5): On board for the United States Air Force.
DAN BJARNASON: This has become the biggest theater of operations in military history. First, armies were the key to warfare, then navies, and then aircrafts. And now America is staking out control of the heavens as central to its security down there on earth and it's in no mood for rivals.
JOHN PIKE: I would say that over the last few years, over the last decade, the United States increasingly views control of outer space, our unique ability to use outer space for military purposes as essential to maintaining our control here on earth.
RICHARD PERLE (Asst. Secretary of Defense): The control of space for military purposes is of such fundamental importance that a) we can't allow it to fall into the hands of any other technologically sophisticated power and b) it would be a pretty good idea if we had command of space ourselves.
BJARNASON: Washington's plan to dominate space revolves around two strategic concepts, a revolutionary new missile defence system and a super high tech satellite spy network that would keep an American eye and ear on the entire planet.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (6): The goal is simple. To defend our home land from nuclear...
BJARNASON: First the missile network, one of the Pentagon's pet schemes, it's called the National Missile Defence Program -- the N.M.D. The hard-nosed sales job being pitched to the American public is that stopping incoming missiles in space is the key to protecting America's way of life.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (7): National Missile Defence, forging America's shield to provide self-defence for 274 million Americans.
RONALD REAGAN: Let me share with you a vision of the future which offers hope. It is that we embark on a program to counter the awesome Soviet missile threat with measures that are defensive.
BJARNASON: N.M.D. echoes the dream voiced by Ronald Reagan almost 20 years ago. His strategic defence initiative, the star wars scheme. Billions were ploughed into finding a way to intercept Soviet nuclear warheads. The star wars project was never developed in part because the Soviet Union ceased to exist. But the star wars idea never really went away. Under Clinton, the 1980's missiles idea was resurrected and became a real life reality in the 90's. And an initial land based system could now be operational in five years. Cost? As much as $36 billion.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (8): Lift off. Stand by for...
BJARNASON: Here's how it's being tested. A dummy warhead is launched from California. Radar and satellites track the warhead's path for the interception team.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (9): Stand by for terminal count. Three, two...
BJARNASON: Which launches a kill vehicle to destroy the warhead in space. It's being described as trying to hit a bullet with a bullet, a challenge of amazing complexities. It's a feat so difficult some doubt if it's doable or affordable. Still the new President, George W. Bush has fully endorsed the missile plan. Three years ago, Donald Rumsfeld headed a Pentagon study but got America back into the missile defence business. This is the same Donald Rumsfeld that George W. Bush has named as new Defence Secretary.
DONALD RUMSFELD: The task before us is to ensure that we have, without question, the world's strongest and most capable military institutions.
PERLE: The history of our negotiations with the Russians...
BJARNASON: A strong advocate of missile shields when he was Ronald Reagan's Assistant Defence Secretary in the 80's, today Richard Perle is a defense commentator and consultant. Despite the passing of the Cold War, says Perle, it's more important than ever to retain military clout to deal with rogue states and terrorists.
PERLE: In the absence of an ability to defend against missiles, we're left with no alternative but to threaten to retaliate against anyone who might use a missile against us. Like Saddam Hussein, for example. And I don't know how we could justify the return fire and the destruction potentially of millions of women and children in Baghdad as the means of assuring our security or attempting to assure our security. It was one thing during the Cold War when there was reason to believe that we couldn't erect an effective defence because the Soviets could always overcome it. To take the risks involved with the lives of innocent victims in some other country, but after the Cold War and that can't be justified.
PIKE: The real question is whether missile defence is ever going to eliminate the fear or the threat of nuclear weapons.
BJARNASON: During the 1980's, John Pike of the American Federation of Scientists warned that the star wars idea was dangerous and would fuel an arms race. Today, two decades later, John Pike runs his own defence consulting firm and warns that the star wars idea is dangerous and will fuel an arms race.
PIKE: The fundamental problem that you have with any strategic defence is that the two sides are going to disagree on how well the thing works. The people who built it are going to be afraid that it isn't going to work very well. The people who have to overcome it are going to be afraid it might work very well. And so both sides are building up with a fundamental different appreciation of how well the thing is going to work. Throwing strategic defence into a strategic confrontation is basically a formula for an arms race. Strategic defence is basically throwing gasoline on a fire.
BJARNASON: Washington says it needs the missile shield to defend itself against the likes of North Korea or Iran. But the Russians and the Chinese and even some NATO allies are worried about what the last super power would do with the new weapon system. Still, America is prepared to go it alone in defiance if necessary and the missile shield based here on earth is just the beginning. Ahead lies a string of defence outposts out in space. You can get a peek of that future at the Shrever Air Force Base in Colorado. It's at Shrever where they control an air armada in the skies, the growing fleet of satellites that sense the incoming missiles in those N.M.D. tests. And that's just for starters. Shrever is an air base but not an airplane in sight. At Shrever, they look like traditional military personnel but they're working on the frontier of a battle field among the stars. Security here is steel fisted. No one enters or leaves without authorization. As their electronic identity cards are scanned, they're also weighed by a scale in the floor to ensure nothing is smuggled out. A special retina scanner is used during alerts. Here at the 50th space wing, specialists at computer literally fly the satellites adjusting their tilt and pitch in orbit. Satellites to track and sense missiles and other weaponry. And in this room, satellites that handle communications for the air force, for NATO, for the President.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (10): Open line.
BJARNASON: This is a place obsessed with security.
CAPTAIN MACK MORAN: Yes sir.
BJARNASON: Where top guns are aces of electronics, space age hot shots such as Captain Mack Moran.
MORAN: Security courses is extremely important. Most of what we see on these screens day to day is unclassified. The classified part comes in when there is a vehicle anomaly.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
MORAN: Hang on just a second. Hold on a second. Okay. Open line. Um, I'm sorry go ahead.
BJARNASON: I'm sorry. Open line, what is that?
MORAN: That just means that there's an open line, please don't talk anything classified. It's a security thing. Exactly what we were just talking about. We don't want to let anybody to know that's something is wrong with our satellite. If something breaks, we don't want other people knowing about it. That's why that blue light was on earlier.
BJARNASON: Does that happen often?
MORAN: What's that?
BJARNASON: Something goes wrong with the satellite.
MORAN: Not, not too often. No, sir. Every once in a while we, we're not positive what's wrong until somebody comes and takes a look at it. And so we may turn the blue light on when, when people are in here. We would secure the ops floor, if we have a problem with the satellite, a potential problem with the satellite. They're extremely reliable.
BJARNASON: This is the operating centre for the global positioning system - G.P.S. Using satellites, it tells hunters and hikers and campers the world over exactly where they are. It does the same for armies and nuclear submarines and missiles and bombers. Even time is in the arsenal. Behind that high security door, a master clock provides the satellite system with an exact reading to the split second, making G.P.S. the most precise navigational tool anywhere. In this room, they run the G.P.S. system and they speak a language of their own.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (11): Sub seven.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (12): 21.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (13): 29.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (14): 29, please.
BJARNASON: Anywhere on earth with a receiver can be located to within a few meters. Major, give me a sense of how... Major Ed Rivera has watched the military's reliance on satellites deepen.
MAJOR ED RIVERA: Well, go back to Vietnam. Vietnam global positioning system was basically a research and development program. We had like two or three satellites used at that time. And then there's Desert Storm in the early 90's, we had 16 satellites. And that's where it was really discovered the army was able to pinpoint actually where the troops were, where the enemy was and how they were going to utilize it. And then you go to Kosovo where we had anywhere from 27 satellites and that provided the G.P.S. precision guided munitions and now we have 29 satellites. Why it's important? It's not the number but it's the global coverage and that's what we need to provide to the user.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (15): Three, two, one, engine start, and ignition and lift off. We have lift from Cape Canaveral Air Station at the Air Force Delta II launch vehicle carrying the G.P.S. 2R3 spacecraft for the United States Air Force.
BJARNASON: America's military has about 100 satellites in space. No one will say exactly how many. There's the Navistar G.P.S. network. There are satellites that provide early warning of nuclear detonations and missile launchers, a key component in the national missile defence idea and there are satellites that handle high level communications. Many are flown from Shrever.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (16): This is the pre-mission brief for the upcoming shuttle launch that...
BJARNASON: Colonel Richard Weber, Commander of the Shrever Air Force Base.
COLONEL RICHARD WEBER: I like to characterize it as combat power from space. So basically in terms of what that means to our military is from space, for a warning satellite, for home land defence, we would warn the United States that we're under attack. We use those same systems to warn our people that might be deployed in the desert that a scud has been launched against them. On the navigation side, I think that's even, even more important. Modern warfare demands that you know precisely where you are as well as precisely where the guy that you're shooting at might be located.
BJARNASON: Satellites have revolutionized the military at every level. The U.S. Navy is the most powerful naval force in history and no service branch is more reliant than the Navy on satellite technology. With their vessels often far over in the horizon, or hidden from view beneath the waves, satellites let space age war ships navigate, fight and if need be, hide. The U.S.S. Ogden is a Vietnam era transport ship based in San Diego, home of the Pacific fleet. It's pushing middle age but the Ogden's been adapted to the space age that has been in operation in the Gulf. Aging as it is, the Ogden nevertheless is crammed with electronics linking it by satellite with the rest of the fleet and with the Pentagon. The life line to the outside world is not through the rhythm of morse code but through the clicking of computer keyboards sending and receiving coded electronic impulses up to satellites relaying data vital to the survival of any warship. On the bridge of the Ogden, space age sailors rely on satellites to tell the ship, thanks to G.P.S. where it is and where the enemy is. In the heart of the ship, the communications center where the intelligence the vessel needs to survive is gathered by satellite. The Navy is called the silent service and its most silent of all about exactly what goes on here in these tiny top secret rooms. Petty Officer James Townsend let us peek for just a moment into this closed world. Some fast tidying up, documents and manuals quickly stashed away, dials covered, faces hidden, a rare glimpse of the room where the ship links up with its satellites.
PETTY OFFICER JAMES TOWNSEND: This is a restricted area. Only certain people, personnel have authorization to this space. You have to have a top secret clearance and also a need to know. You need both of those in order have access to this space.
BJARNASON: Can we go in there?
TOWNSEND: No, sir, you can't. I'm sorry. This ship, there are roughly 300 people on this ship and only myself and 16 others have access to this space.
BJARNASON: And not us?
TOWNSEND: No, sir.
BJARNASON: The American reliance on satellite has led to an obsession with security based in part by a determination never to be caught by surprise. Never again, that is. America is haunted by the ghost of the sneak attack at Pearl Harbour and that was over a half century ago. Today, the commitment is no Pearl Harbour in space. Before he became George W. Bush's new Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld chaired a second study for the Pentagon, the space commission. He warned of the dangers of a space Pearl Harbour and used the phrase repeatedly. Rumsfeld said it is in the national interest to develop and deploy the means to deter and defend against hostile acts directed at U.S. base assets. When we return, still haunted by the Pearl Harbour ghost, America is planning never to be ambushed in space.
WEBER: We're aware of the potential threats and we're prepared to react.
BJARNASON: Using its satellite superiority, America has achieved a huge military advantage, an edge they intend to keep. So America, out of paranoia or prudence, is always on the look out for someone planning to try a sneak attack. In World War II, this massive building in San Diego churned out bombers that helped win the war against Germany and Japan. Today, it is the U.S. Navy's satellite acquisition center.
ROBERT CARLETON: The actual satellite is about 75 feet.
BJARNASON: For program manager, Robert Carleton, his big worry is about someone wanting to knock down one of his satellites.
CARLETON: Certainly there's a couple of ways you can threaten a space communications link through satellites. You can do it from the ground with a jammer where you actually just overwhelm the terminal you're talking through. In the space craft itself, part of the main concern would be an electro-magnetic pulse, E.M.P. that would come from a nuclear blast.
BJARNASON: Part of defending against those threats is in the satellite design, such as hardening them against the effects of nuclear weapons. Back at Shrever in Colorado, there is deep concern with security on the ground. Shrever would be a prime target on any enemy's hit list and here there's as much attention to protecting the protectors as in safeguarding the satellites. As for protecting its satellites up there in orbit, Colonel Richard Weber says only don't you worry about it.
WEBER: First of all, for security clearances, I'm not going to address the issue of potential threats or what we actually might do to respond to those threats because those are all classified.
BJARNASON: No, no, I realize that.
WEBER: But the real issue is we are concerned about the security of our satellites. We're aware of the potential threats and we're prepared to react. I think the reality is that it would be naive to assume that a potential future adversary, a future Gulf War style operation, a future Kosovo style operation, we need to assume that they will do the simple things that can be done that will start to degrade our ability in space and we're prepared to react to that.
BJARNASON: What Colonel Weber wouldn't talk about was whether America is working on sending actual weapons into space. But there's evidence the Pentagon has already experimented with satellite killers. This is something nicknamed miracle, a ground based laser that came out of a star wars research. At the White Sands facility in New Mexico, the U.S. Army used miracle to hit an American satellite in a test. When the test became public, the army said it was merely examining ways its own satellites could be damaged. The Army is also funding research into a kinetic anti-satellite that would destroy unfriendly satellites by crashing into them. Recognizant and communications satellites are one thing, says John Pike but he warns against an arms race in space. America has no real rivals now and none in sight.
PIKE: Right now space is basically a sanctuary from which the American military can operate and observe the planet and support our military operations all over the place. If space were to become a combat arena, I think it may only be a combat arena of other countries shooting at American military satellites and that would be a bad thing for America and I think a bad thing for the world. But it's only the United States that has a military space system that has effectively lifted the fog of battle that has bedeviled military commander since the born of history.
BJARNASON: America clearly regards control of space as the key element in being a super power. This new strategic atlas is explained with crisp clarity by defence specialist Richard Perle. How should a prudent country who is not necessarily friendly to the United States, how would a prudent country read the development of the N.M.D. and the satellite field?
PERLE: First, prudent countries are friendly to the United States. I would advise any prudent country to be friendly because we're certainly ready to be friendly. What I would like to see in 20 years from now is a capability based in space to intercept any ballistic missile that might be aimed by anyone at anyone. And that would, I think, achieve a level of stability among nations that, that we're not going to get any other way. And space seems to be the logical place from which to mount such a capability.
BJARNASON: In this new century, America intends to become and to remain not just the cosmic cop but the only cop on the beat. For The National, I'm Dan Bjarnason.
Copyright 2001 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
