• Scheduling early, smaller SPS systems will provide operational experience and allow defense requirements to be worked out incrementally (if defense is possible) before large SPS funding commitments are made. • The DOD should be brought into system planning and development as early as possible to support the identification of defense/mintary related issues and be ready to initiate any R&D required to resolve these issues. 3.2 IMPACTS ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The impacts of the SPS on international relations will be both positive and negative. They will include weapons/military impacts, impacts related to the allotment of the rights to frequency and orbit resources, and impacts that result from large quantities of SPS power being made available for use, export, and control. It is probable that there will be SPS-related disputes to resolve, agreements to forge, and international organizing to do for some time to come. 3.2.1 Weapons Impacts Both the severity of the weapons impacts on international relations and SPS security will be related to the emphasis that is placed on weapons and military activity at the space site. These impacts will be good or bad, depending on the country in question and its own current self-centered interests. Freedom of space as now recognized, just as freedom of the seas, allows property to be escorted and protected as required. This freedom and the limited restrictions (nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in space) should permit the gradual development and deployment of an effective and accepted SPS self-defense system. Weapons that provide a military advantage to the nation(s) in control of the SPS without introducing capabilities that tend toward weapon stability may, through the creation of suspicion, fear, and actual vulnerability to those nations not in control, accelerate the arms race. 3.2.2 Power Export/Power Embargoes The large power production capability of an SPS developed and deployed by the United States will provide a valuable export commodity provided that: • The necessary agreements can be reached ensuring the United States the required frequency, bandwidth, and orbit slots; • The SPS is designed with a flexiblity that allows it to serve export demands; and • The necessary agreements can be reached involving assurances relating to payments, reliability of power delivery (embargoes), and SPS system security (transmitting and receiving sites) between export/import countries.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==