Jpost
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday committed Israel to becoming the ‘global leader’ in space-attack capabilities.
‘One of the central goals which the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and I set is that we are recruiting the best minds, since as of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks from outer space, and we must be the leading country in the world with this capability,’ said Katz.
The defense minister continued, ‘If we achieve this, it will ensure our ability to attack, destroy, and deal with all other matters regarding enemies with large resources.’
Other countries already have the capability for space attacks
However, Katz’s statement was not entirely accurate. Both Russia and China have performed test attacks on their own satellites in prior years and managed to destroy their test targets.
However, each time they did so, they created perpetually rotating debris around Earth’s orbit that has endangered their still-functioning satellites along with other countries’ satellites and space platforms.
Some have already speculated that Israel could destroy enemy space satellites using the Arrow 3 missile system, given that it already strikes ballistic missiles in space.
Yet, due to the debris issue that Russia and China have already encountered, many countries are working on other techniques, such as paralyzing, damaging, jamming, dragging, or using lasers against satellites in space.
While some Israeli officials have hinted at such efforts, Katz’s public statement is the clearest one to date by a senior Israeli official. In contrast, if Iran or other enemies advanced past Israel in space, they could attack Israeli satellites and reduce their surveillance capabilities.