Shooting Down a Star: Program 437, the U.S. Nuclear ASAT System and Present Day Copycat Killers - Anti-Satellite, Nike-Zeus, North Korea, India, Iran, China, Space Launch, Space Asset Vulnerability

This excellent report, professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, is a case study of an early U.S. antisatellite (ASAT) weapon system. In this study, Colonel Chun shows how the US Air Force developed a rudimentary ASAT system from obsolete Thor intermediate ballistic missiles, an existing space tracking system, and nuclear warheads. Largely forgotten today, this system helped to defend the United States from 1964 until the demise of the program in the mid-1970s.

Since many of Program 437's components were from off-the-shelf weapons stocks and ready to field after a short development program, the Air Force's first ASAT system was relatively inexpensive to create, deploy, and operate. In tracing the evolution of this ASAT system based on 1950s technology, Colonel Chun notes that a growing number of nations today have access to technology of much more recent vintage. He then proceeds to address in some detail the vulnerability of space-based systems that have become essential to the security and operational prowess of the United States and its allies. Given growing US reliance on space systems for warning, employment of precision weapons, communications, navigation and positioning support, weather reporting, and surveillance and reconnaissance, Colonel Chun's study constitutes a timely reminder of the threat that even a rudimentary ASAT could pose.

PREFACE * PROGRAM 437: THE BEGINNINGS * ASAT WEAPONS: AN ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY? * ASAT DEVELOPMENT: THE AIR FORCE LEADS THE WAY * WHY ASAT WEAPONS? * NIKE-ZEUS BECOMES A RIVAL * OPERATIONAL CONCEPT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAM 437 * LIMITING FACTORS * Funding Shortfalls * Location, Location, Location * The Nuclear Specter * PROGRAM 437 UNMASKED * A NEW MISSION FOR THE 10TH ADS * A THIRD LIFE FOR PROGRAM 437 * THE DEMISE OF PROGRAM 437 * SPACE: A CRITICAL DIMENSION * VULNERABILITY OF SPACE-BASED ASSETS * POTENTIAL THREATS * NORTH KOREA: KEY EXPORTER OF TECHNOLOGY * The DPRK's Ballistic Missile Capabilities * North Korea: A Nuclear Sphinx * INDIA: A GROWING BALLISTIC MISSILE POWER * India's Ballistic Missiles: An Overview * India's Nuclear Program * IRAN: A MISSILE EXPORTER'S PARADISE * Iran's Ballistic Missile Capabilities: An Overview * Iran Moves Closer to Nuclear Power * CHINA'S REACH FOR THE STARS * PRC Ballistic Missiles: An Overview * Chinese Nuclear Programs * SPACE LAUNCH INFRASTRUCTURE * INTERNATIONAL ASAT CAPABILITIES: HOW REAL THE THREAT? * CONCLUSION