Anti-satellite capability is not new: the 1985 ASM-135 test and the dual anti-ballistic and anti-satellite potential of weapons such as SM-3 provide clear examples. Aircraft and ships can deliver these attacks, making treaties against turning space into a battlefield difficult to rely upon in a major conflict. Destroying a satellite can create debris that remains in orbit and strikes other spacecraft, turning one engagement into a wider chain reaction. The civilian and military consequences include lost weather data, navigation, communications in places without fixed links, and guidance information used by modern weapons. A major anti-satellite exchange may therefore be more systemically damaging than hypersonic speed alone.
Chapter · 1:08:41-1:12:33
Anti-satellite missiles threaten the infrastructure around a war
Aircraft and ships can attack satellites, but orbital debris could damage navigation, weather, communications, and other systems far beyond the battlefield.