A study of future conflict in space08-23-2068 - Made by the British institute of Space Research & ExplorationForewordDue to current hostilities by China and their unfounded claim of several asteroids in the belt it has been proposed to conduct a theoretical study into the difficulties of military conflict in space.
Through other reports it has been concluded that China will be able to launch its first nuclear powered vessel in space by 2072 and a military version in the next five to ten years.
On the basis on this information this report have been composed to foresee the possible nature of a military space program to protect British interests in space.
ObjectivesWhat would we expect a military space force to protect and to what extent would this force operate?
The most important asset in space, that has to be protected at all costs, would be our capacity to build and maintain military assets. The second priority would be to secure and protect any mining operations, either on Venus or in the Asteroid belt. We are estimating that all our mining facilities will be operated by drone facilities so there will be no actual people to protect at these sites, save for the occasional maintenance crews. Our third objective would be any freighter ships in transit between these locations.
It has been concluded that the only solution to obtain any of these goals is to build a remote naval base and colony where any future naval yards can be operated and protected from enemy forces. Any yard in orbit of Earth will be vulnerable against too many types of aggression.
OrganizationA new military organization must be formed to meet all the new requirements and logistical problems faced with forming a military force in space.
This new organization must be formed and given the power and means to construct a new naval space headquarters.
The organization need to contain four different branches of operational brigades which would be Naval Fleet Brigade (NOB), Amphibious Operations Brigade (AOB), Naval Auxiliary Brigade (NAB) and Systems Command & Operations (SCO).
NOB would be in charge of overseeing all organization and movement of military fleet assets in open space. They would organize fleet training, reconnaissance, battle manoeuvre tactics and would be tasked with overall command in offensive operations.
AOP would be in charge of ground forces in a space dominating role. They will be responsible for development of tactics, equipment of ground forces and all the logistics and training of all forces. They would also be responsible for organizing invasion plans in case such tactics would become necessary. As in if a belligerent country would land troops on a British colony or mining site and had to be removed by force.
NAB will be responsible for any and all movement of logistical vessels, they will also be responsible of their protection and both strategic and tactical deployment. It would also be the responsibility of the NAB to support fleet or amphibious operations in case of a war. They would also be responsible to coordinate their forces with other brigades in support of their needs, be it for training or live operations.
SCO would be responsible for coordinating all the other brigades and to organize the defence of naval bases. This branch of the new military would make the final decisions on strategic goals and resource allocations. SCO will have no tactical or other operational authority over the other branches of the British Royal Space Navy (RSN).
HardwareHow will conflict in space be conducted and what are the weapons that will dominate a space defence force?
Allot of studies has lately shown that large missiles would be the most probable primary offensive weapon, mainly because of the huge distances of space where high energy beam weapons just don't have enough range to be efficient.
Although, high energy beam weapons will be needed as a defensive measure of both missiles and platforms that approaches within beam weapons range of high valued targets. Since missiles is a rather expensive weapon and limited in numbers a powerful beam weapon will be necessary to defend both bases and vessels in space.
Torpedoes
British researches has made some progression on future technologies, more specifically on a missile design codenamed
Barracuda. It is based on projected capabilities in about five years from now.
The Barracuda torpedo would weigh in at about 20 tonnes and carry a nuclear Sorium based engine for high speed and performance. Its range would be about an astonishing 20-25 million km, mostly limited by its electronics and guidance systems and not fuel. Its warhead would be a powerful nuclear package which is necessary in attacking any structure based on any form of Duranium alloy. The Barracuda tracking and targeting systems would allow the missile to intercept a target at speeds around 1000km/s with a good accuracy.
Research into missiles capable of intercepting a missile such as the Barracuda has so far proved to be very difficult and the most promising defensive technology so far has been long range high powered laser beams that could target a missile at a distance between 60-80.000 km.
High powered beam weapons
Beam weapons require enormous amount of energy to attain the destructive power to cut through a Duranium hull, but recent research show that it is possible. British research have so far looked at a first generation of lasers with a focal size of about 100-120mm using the visual light spectrum.
Such beams could be constructed to engage and destroy missiles as their primary function. A secondary function would be the use against enemy vessels to cut through their hull at ranges closer than missile range.
A practical laser range would be about 60-80.000 km.
It would be projected that a single system including a fire-control of a turret operating two laser beam would have a weight of about 450 tonnes per turret and 300 tonnes for the fire-control. Each turret would also need about 100 tonnes of power plant to feed enough power into the arrays.
It would be reasonable to conclude that an escort vessel could mount two laser turrets and one fire-control.
Some ships might also use one or several laser arrays for self defence against enemy ships, such lasers would not need as elaborate fire-controls or space for fast tracking systems and would be considerable smaller. Such systems should be mounted on guided missile vessels for protection at close range and can also be used to engage enemy missiles for additional defence.
PlatformsIt is believed that there will be need for quite a few different platforms in order to operating an efficient space fleet in the next ten to fifteen years.
The first platform should be a small but fast platform to deliver a powerful blow with short range beam weapons. This platform should have a weight of 600-800 tonnes. It's role would be to catch and destroy enemy missile platforms so it has to be very fast, we believe that a speed of about 3000km/s would be possible to build with today's technology. The range of these ships should be somewhere about 300-500 million km.
The second platform should be some form of fast vessel to efficiently and quickly be able to carry torpedoes. These torpedoes would mainly be used against larger and slower platforms. Torpedoes will not be very effective against smaller and faster platforms. This platform would need a size of 700-1000 tonnes and have a speed at least in excess of 2000km/s while their range would be 300-500 million km.
A third platform would be some form of surveillance and reconnaissance vessel and would need to have a size of at least 1500-2000t. It should have advanced electronics and intelligence gathering systems. It would most likely be unarmed so it would need to have a decent speed to avoid confrontation with enemy ships. Speed for this ship would be estimated at about 1250-1500km/s
The ship would also need a much longer deployment and range so it can perform its surveillance role.
The next generation of ships would be larger vessels capable of several functions at the same time or specialized to perform specific functions. There will, for example, be a need of some form of escort vessel to escort and protect civilian ships and troop transport ships. There will also be a need of some form of space superiority vessel that can hold and control areas in space without the need of a naval base nearby. Such a vessel will need to be much bigger and hold more space for both defensive and offensive weapons as well as sophisticated electronics.
An escort vessel would most likely need to have a size of around 3-3500 tonnes while a space superiority ship would need to be at least 5-7000 tonnes in size. Both of these vessels would need to have roughly the same speeds and we estimate that less space can be used for engines and they would most likely attain speeds of 800-1000km/s, while range would be estimated in billions of km. Their defence are mainly going to be stealth, reconnaissance and pure power projection and not speed, they will never be able to compete at speed with smaller vessels anyway. In competition with an enemy space superiority fleet knowledge of the enemy would far outweigh the benefit of speed according to military analyses.
ConclusionIt is the recommendation of this report that the goal for the next ten to fifteen years is made in preparation for establishing a naval base somewhere in the solar system in an isolated enough location that it can easily be defended but also close enough to be efficient in protecting our interests in space.
There should be an initial focus in localizing a good place and start preparing to colonize it and build up a local industry that will care for and maintain itself and the majority of our naval vessels.
It is estimated that in order to achieve this goal in a 20-25 year period we will need to divert about 10% of our yearly budget for project related to this goal.
