The New Arms Race in Space
- Vardui Chtrkyan
- Nov 8
- 4 min read
By: Kayla Penhasi
Space Races have never truly ended—they have only evolved. The Cold War’s first Space Race reemerged in 2019 in the form of acknowledging space as a warfighting domain. NATO—the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—officially recognizes five domain operations in warfare: Maritime, Land, Air, Space, Cyberspace (Giordano, 2023, October 5)—space being formally established as one of these domains in 2019 (Dolman, 2022). With space becoming a domain of warfare and military build-up following developments of new weapons across countries, this is known as the New Arms Race in Space.
A “New Arms Race” is defined by two or more powers competing in their military capability. One of the main developments fueling the New Arms Race in Space is the development of ASAT weapons, or anti-satellite weapons.
“ASAT tests are used by countries to destroy or incapacitate satellites, including through their physical destruction,” King & Spalding news said. They elaborate on its controversies, “ASAT tests are a major source of space debris and increase the risk of collisions of on-orbit space objects, compromising the safety of space assets,” (King & Spalding, 2024).
The United States has been committed to the ASAT weapon ban since 2022, to which a multitude of countries have followed in this ban since then (Kimball, 2022).
The newest branch of the U.S. military in 70 years was established in 2019, being the U.S. Space Force. Under the Biden Administration, the Space Force officials demonstrated a greater need for offensive space capabilities as a result of threats by Russia and China. Currently, President Donald Trump has proposed a missile defense system to detect and destroy foreign threats called the Golden Dome, costing $175 billion.
This project comes with many concerns—some consisting of the possibility that, with the United States advancing, other countries will adapt to these technologies and further worsen the possibilities of nuclear war.
“We will end up with vastly larger Russian and Chinese nuclear forces. We will end up with the Russians and the Chinese having all kinds of crazy sci-fi weapons," Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey professor Jeffery Lewis said, courtesy of NPR. "In short, we will end up spending tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars to be in, at best, the same place we are today, and most likely a much worse place” (Brumfiel, 2025). China and Russia have been largely expanding their military developments.
China’s newfound space capabilities are in regards to more ASAT systems, such as the DA-ASAT, or direct-ascent anti-satellite systems, RPO capabilities, supporting in gathering intelligence and counterspace functions, and electronic warfare for jamming Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Russia has also countered the move of commercial satellite constellations.
Additionally, further in regards to Russia, following a Burevestnik cruise missile test flight (2025, October 21), “‘We have launched a multi-hour flight of a nuclear-powered missile and it covered a 14,000km (8,700-mile) distance, which is not the limit,’ Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting,” (Lapham, 2025) courtesy of BBC news.
The missile has demonstrated capabilities to bypass air defense systems (as they may fly as low as 50 meters above the ground), allowing Russia intercontinental range and the ability to reach any target in the United States. This missile is a nuclear reactor code-named Skyfall by NATO (Lapham, 2025). During flight-test failures, an accident resulted in the deaths of five scientists in the Russian Arctic (Mitchell, 2025).
The space frontier of human exploration has become an increasingly contested domain—with this comes the rapid development of weapons by countries like the United States, Russia, and China. Experts warn of risks of accidental escalation of these powers and that leading to nuclear conflict, as well as debris generation that may harm the exploration of space in the future.
Works Cited
Anti-Satellite Tests and the Growing Demand for Space Debris Mitigation. (n.d.). Www.kslaw.com. https://www.kslaw.com/news-and-insights/anti-satellite-tests-and-the-growing-demand-for-space-debris-mitigation
Brumfiel, G. (2025, April 22). Trump wants a Golden Dome over America. Here’s what it would take. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/g-s1-61658/trump-golden-dome-america-iron-military-defense
Dolman, E. (2022). SPACE IS A WARFIGHTING DOMAIN. https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AEtherJournal/Journals/Volume-1_Issue-1/11-Dolman.pdf
Giordano, P. (2023, October 5). Multi-Domain Operations in NATO - Explained - NATO’s ACT. NATO’s ACT. https://www.act.nato.int/article/mdo-in-nato-explained/
Jones, A. (2025, April 3). China expands counterspace capabilities, new report finds. SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/china-expands-counterspace-capabilities-new-report-finds/
Kimball, D. (2022, May). U.S. Commits to ASAT Ban | Arms Control Association. Www.armscontrol.org. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2022-05/news/us-commits-asat-ban
Lapham, J. (2025, October 26). Russia tests nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile, military says. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qp8ed877jo
McManus, J. (2024, May 29). Operating Successfully within the Bureaucracy Domain of Warfare: Part One. US Army War College - Publications. https://publications.armywarcollege.edu/News/Display/Article/3789970/operating-successfully-within-the-bureaucracy-domain-of-warfare-part-one/
Mitchell, E. (2025, October 27). What to know about Putin’s “Skyfall” nuclear missile test. The Hill. https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5575554-burevestnik-missile-trump-condemns/
Panda, A., & Silverstein, B. (2022, April 20). The U.S. Moratorium on Anti-Satellite Missile Tests Is a Welcome Shift in Space Policy. Carnegieendowment.org. https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2022/04/the-us-moratorium-on-anti-satellite-missile-tests-is-a-welcome-shift-in-space-policy?lang=en
Perlo-Freeman, S. (2024). Arms race. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/arms-race
Roulette, J. (2025, May 22). Trump’s Golden Dome plan could launch new era of weapons in space. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/trumps-golden-dome-plan-could-launch-new-era-weapons-space-2025-05-22/
I learned so much!
This article effectively presents multiple viewpoints on the arms race and includes concerns such as potential conflict, developments, and advancements. Great job, this was highly educational!!