This page has links to the full text of a number of Missile Defense Agency environmental documents. Most important of these is the September 2004 Missile Defense Agency, Ballistic Missile Defense System Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). Volume Two of this PEIS provides useful summaries of missile defense programs and the way they fit together, from the Israel-U.S. Arrow anti-missile programs to Navy sea-based interceptors to advanced technologies in the early phases of research.

For an analysis of these and other U.S. missile programs, see Missiles of Empire: America's 21st Century Global Legions Andrew Lichterman, WSLF information Bulletin, Fall 2003 (pdf)

These documents originally were available to the public at the Hill Air Force Base web site.

This key program document describes the types of capabilities the U.S. hopes to develop in some detail.

Informative concerning how the military calculates damage expectancy for nuclear and other strategic weapons, and provides additional information about the types of capabilities the military plans to explore in its research and development program for both conventional and nuclear-armed strategic missiles.

Provides a summary overview of the program.

This document provides further details on the alternatives the military hopes to explore for nuclear and conventional strategic weapons. It describes which technologies are being considered only for conventional payloads and which for nuclear weapons, while acknowledging that some, if not all, of the new concepts for radically new capabilities under consideration for conventional currently being considered only for conventional weapons also could be used to deliver nuclear weapons, e.g.:

“The Common Aero Vehicle (CAV) is currently a specific conventional-only delivery vehicle with high lift-over-drag characteristics.

A high lift-over-drag vehicle can be designed and built that can carry nuclear weapons.” (At p. 4)

The FALCON program also will explore a variety of launch and hypersonic flight technologies that could lead to new expendable or reusable space launch vehicles with a variety of military applications.

"In 1998, AFSPC had put together an MSP acquisition initiative for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 Program Objective Memorandum (POM). This initiative contained initial funding for the entire MSP system, including CAV. MSP had congressional interest, and steady congressional adds had been provided to the MSP Technology Office over the years. In 1998, the President exercised his new line item veto for the first time. One of the programs he line item vetoed was MSP. Weapons in space were a contentious issue with that administration and MSP (and by extension CAV) received a black eye. The actual MSP RLV was renamed Space Operations Vehicle (SOV) at the direction of the AFSPC Commander, and the MSP POM initiative died a quiet death. When the Supreme Court overturned the line item veto on constitutional grounds, Congress dictated the returned money could be used for either Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV) or CAV. When the money arrived at the MSP Technology Office, it came with instructions from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) that the money was to be spent only on SMV, not CAV. For the next 2-3 years, any public mention of CAV or other space weapons was not allowed, and work performed on CAV was done quietly and out of the limelight."

Treaty, Political and Technical Considerations of On-Orbit CAVs
"No current treaties prohibit placing conventional weapons in orbit. The Outer Space Treaty prohibits weapons on celestial bodies and prohibits placing weapons of mass destruction in orbit. CAVs in orbit would definitely cause a political discussion of the first order with the Russians, however, because of their potential to effectively attack ICBMs in their silos. Using Young's equation and ignoring some penetrator physics limits, penetration depths of 40-60 feet into 5000 psi hardened concrete can be calculated using an 800-1000 lb penetrator at 4000-4500 feet per second impact velocity. Under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the Russians would have ample reason to complain the US was making an effort to negate their nuclear deterrent force. Although applicable to any type of CAV employment theoretically, this is particularly true for orbital CAVs, where an attack could be undetectable by national technical means because of the lack of a launch signature.

Besides foreign political concerns from the Russians, and likely some "Old Europe" countries as well, domestic acceptance of weapons on orbit is an open question. An outcry could be expected from the left and CAVs on-orbit would likely be on the national news unless kept behind the green door. President Clinton line-item-vetoed (later overturned) space weapons in 1998 and his OSD forbade use of congressional add money on CAV one year later. Serious opponents of space basing CAVs would appear in Congress, and they could seriously delay or cancel all CAV efforts if they believed it would lead to a near-term CAV on-orbit deployment. Filibusters are effective tactics where the minority can effectively shut down individual programs they dislike. A better tactic is to develop a useful CAV capability without having to engage in the orbital deployment morass."

The Military Space Plane: Providing Transformational and Responsive Global Precision Striking Power: A White Paper on the Operational Utility of a Military Spaceplane in the Emerging 21st Century International Security Environment (draft), Proposed by members of ONE TEAM in Conjunction With the 120 Day Reusable Launch Vehicle Study, January 2002

“Once a target is identified, the spaceplane can respond from the U.S. and strike worldwide targets in under an hour. The munitions employed are generally the same as those used on conventional aircraft, only they are released from a small, low cost, precision guided missile called a Common Aero Vehicle (CAV). The CAV enables interchangeable use of virtually the entire arsenal of next generation air munitions currently in development at the Air Force’s Air Armaments Center. It protects the munitions during hypersonic reentry and dispenses them with the same accuracy and effect as if being dropped from aircraft. These munitions are designed to selectively strike surface targets, mobile vehicles, deeply buried bunkers, aircraft in flight, and potentially even bio-terrorism targets requiring Agent Defeat munitions designed to destroy biological weapons.” “The Military Space Plane: Providing Transformational and Responsive Global Precision Striking Power: A White Paper on the Operational Utility of a Military Spaceplane in the Emerging 21st Century International Security Environment,” (draft), Proposed by members of ONE TEAM in Conjunction With the 120 Day Reusable Launch Vehicle Study, January 2002, p.12

NASA- USAF Reusable Space Launch Development 120 Day Study Industry Day Briefing, January 17, 2002, briefing slides

NASA- USAF Reusable Space Launch Development 120 Day Study Industry Day Briefing, Payloads and Sensors Team January 15-18, 2002, Briefing Slides

NASA- USAF Reusable Space Launch Development 120 Day Study Industry Day Briefing, January 17, 2002, Requirements and Operations Team Briefing Slides

NASA- USAF Reusable Space Launch Development 120 Day Study Industry Day Briefing, January 17, 2002, Architecture Team Briefing Slides

These plans are more recent and less well known than the U.S. Space Command Long Range Plan. Described as Air Force Space Command's "capstone planning document," the Strategic Master Plan sets out in detail the Air Force wish list for military systems operating in, from, and through space. The FY02 and Beyond document, no longer available for the original source, has been archived on this site. It provides more detail on many programs than the FY04 and FY )^ and Beyond plans.

U.S. Space Command's overview of an ambitious plan for U.S. military space programs in the 21st century, including concepts for anti-satellite warfare and for attack of terrestrial targets from space. Archived at the Federation of American Scientists web site.

This influential report, written by a panel which included current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, supports the U.S. Space Command vision for the intensive militarization of space.

This document provides and overview of current efforts across the government from the Department of Defense to NASA and the Department of Energy to develop technologies which will be useful for military space programs. This document is especially useful for tracking the overlaps between different types of weapons programs and concommitant areas of basic and applied research. The appendices provide good charts and summaries of activities by agency.

Overview and evaluation of U.S. military laser programs, including the Space-Based Laser.

Useful overview of Air Force technology development plans.

These documents, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, provide an overview of Department of Defense science and technology activities. Once available to the public, these documents now are available only within the government and to military contractors. WSLF obtained the most recent version through a Freedom of Information Act Request. The entire set can be found here.

The sections most relevant to the continuing militarization of space are listed below (all Acrobat pdf files):

Joint Warfighting Science and Technology Plan

Joint Theater Missile Defense

Protection of Space Assets

Defense Science and Technology Plan

Space Platforms

Sensors

Weapons

"The Space Force Projection Enterprise provides focus and direction to technology investments that address the application of force from and through space to points in space, in the air and on the ground. The scope of this Enterprise is wide and includes leading technology initiatives in areas such as the Military Space Plane, Space Based Lasers and ballistic missile systems. Though current treaty implications limit the actual fielding of weapons in space, low end capabilities providing entry levels of graduated deterrence are needed now. The technology base required to meet future space weapon needs must be developed and matured today if it is to be available for future warfighter needs." (at p. ii.)

A set of interlinked program documents called the National Security Space Road Map used to be available to the public on the Web, but access now is restricted to the military and defense contractors. It has extensive information on military space programs, ranging from surveillance and communications satellites to technology development for new weapons systems operating through or from space. Western States Legal Foundation obtained the Space Road Map through the Freedom of Information Act. The information in the version received was collected by the compilers of the Roadmap during 1997 and 1998. This version is similar to the version available on the Federation of American Scientists web site, but contains additional interactive graphics which make it somewhat more understandable and easier to navigate.

National Security Space Road Map description and main page

National Security Space Road Map Index Page

A Space Roadmap for the 21st Century Aerospace Force (1998) pdf download

This report provides a detailed overview of military space technology development plans. Certain of the appendices for this report were published in December 2000 and briefly were available on the internet in a separate volume, but have subsequently been removed from the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board reports web page. For those appendices, click here (pdf download).

Why & Whither Hypersonics Research in the US Air Force, 2000 long pdf download

This report examines technology development plans and progress regarding hypersonic air and space craft. Concepts being explored range from hypersonic missiles to global strike space craft.

United States Aerospace Expeditionary Forces Volume 2: Appendices E-H, 1998 pdf download

Appendix G of this study of the transformation of the Air Force to better accomplish global force projection summarizes relevant technology goals, including development of "Rapid and Lethal Force Projection From Space."

References to both internet available and print materials on the space-based laser and related military space programs.

"Older version of this bibliography, with some different entries

From the Space Based Laser-Integrated Flight Experiment Home Page, a short, clear explanation of the space based laser program, its role in missile defense and its other possible missions. This paper also provides a summary of U.S. ballistic missile defense programs, including both national and theater missile defense, and how they fit together. (pdf file)

RAND corporation overview of the possible role of space-based weapons.