CBW is apparently a highly effective means for disabling the SPS system with little or no damage to the physical facilities, a factor that would permit an aggressor to seize the SPS system for his own uses should the CBW agent be timelimited in its action or should the aggressor possess counteragents for each CBW agent in his arsenal. C.5.2 CBW Threat A cursory initial look at the military CBW threat posed by the SPS would dismiss the threat as trivial if not inconsequential. This is not necessarily the case: because of the isolation of the life support systems of orbital facilities, it becomes possible to develop and test potent new CBW agents, vectors, and countermeasures in these facilities, and to use them as CBW agent manufacturing, storage, and dispersing (vectoring) centers in space. The most obvious sites for space-isolated CBW centers would be pharmaceutical and biological space manufacturing modules unrelated to SPS facilities. However, the sheer size of many SPS facilities such as the power satellites and the GEO Base lend themselves to the inclusion of a CBW agent manufacturing or storage module in the facility. Storage modules especially might be very easy to camouflage. These factors, taken into consideration with the SPS space transportation system which offers frequent and relatively inexpensive access to and from orbital space, inevitably make SPS a credible supporting system for CBW. The basic SPS threat in the area of CBW lies in (a) the biological and chemical isolation of SPS elements from one another, the very factor that renders SPS to vulnerable to CBW; (b) the capability to vector CBW agents to selected space facilities utilizing the space transportation system; and (c) most importantly, the capability for an aggressor using CBW to vector the agents against ground targets with the certainty that some or all of his space facilities would not be affected. An aggressor could use the space segments of the SPS to house his command and control centers while vectoring CBW agents against ground targets, remaining certain that, if he shuts off up-bound traffic to orbit, his space facilities will remain immune and isolated. One safeguard against the CBW threat—and it cannot be guaranteed absolutely effective—is the Resident Inspection Operation (RIO) whose tasks should include inspection and monitoring of the SPS system for CBW threat.
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