The Pentagon believes WWIII may be fought in space (Image: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / AFP via Getty)
Star Trek called it “the final frontier”. Now it’s poised to become the ultimate battleground. A shocking new Pentagon report declares space to be the “decisive domain” for any coming war between the superpowers. And it warns of a dystopian future as robotic weapons systems battle it out in orbit, raining death and destruction on terrestrial enemies with no human intervention.
“We are evolving toward a remote control war which, by 2050, may be a reality,” says the US Air Force in its chilling report.
The future of warfare will be “highly automated, highly autonomous,” it predicts.
“Control of space in 2050 will be aggressively contested – it already is.
“Adversary space systems may include weapons prepositioned in space for terrestrial attack.”
Meanwhile, against this ominous backdrop another battle for space supremacy is being waged between the world’s two richest men.
And financially-strapped space agency Nasa fears it might be left on the launchpad.
At the presidential inauguration in Washington on Monday, in a privileged position just feet away from the president stood rival billionaires: , who owns SpaceX, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin rockets. Both also command vast global satellite arrays.
Yet when Trump declared his ambition to send US astronauts to Mars it was Musk, who has become one of the president’s most trusted senior advisers, who jumped with delight and gave a grinning thumbs-up.
The world’s richest man, Musk has long professed his dream of sending a SpaceX crew to the red planet, and Trump seems poised to use taxpayers’ billions to help him do just that. Bezos, who lacks the president’s ear, just applauded politely.
Trump’s declaration deepens the rift between Nasa and the ascendant Musk, who could single-handedly fund the space agency’s $25billion annual budget for 17 years before he runs short.
Musk has been appointed co-chair of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, tasked by Trump with slashing $2trillion from the federal government’s $6.3trillion annual budget.
US Space Force flag is unveiled in the Oval Office during Donald Trump’s first administration (Image: Hum Images / Universal Images Group via Getty)
He finds himself in the enviable position of cutting waste at Nasa while having the personal funds to make SpaceX the dominant force in America’s space future, much to Bezos’s chagrin.
Musk’s moment of elation at the inauguration offered a brief window into the complex machinations behind the growing race to exploit – and militarise – space, which could become the world’s next grim theatre of war. In one of his first moves, the 47th president tellingly ordered the Space Force flag to be raised to full mast alongside each US military branch flag.
After six decades of a space race with , it is China that will be America’s greatest enemy in any orbital conflict, the Pentagon report reveals.
The warning comes as President Trump puts China squarely in his cross-hairs, threatening onerous tariffs on imports. These are in retaliation for China’s alleged currency manipulation, supply chain disruptions, intellectual property theft, failure to halt fentanyl exports and election interference.
Yet the looming space war with China is cloaked in the aspirational sugar-coating of America’s “manifest destiny into the stars,” as Trump proclaimed in his inauguration speech, promising to launch “American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars”.
It was toward the end of Trump’s first presidency when, to a chorus of mockery and mistrust, he launched the Space Force in 2019. He insisted: “Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital.”
Five years later, the technology to make space a battleground is no longer science fiction.
The cost of space launches has fallen dramatically and there are now more than 10,000 active satellites orbiting Earth.
This number is predicted to multiply five-fold by 2030, led by constellations launched by SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper Systems.
But as nations become increasingly dependent on satellite communications, so are the prospects magnified of military satellites designed for war in space.
Star Trek with Leonard Nimoy as Spock and William Shatner as Kirk gave optimistic vision of future (Image: CBS via Getty)
“We’re going to need a much bigger, much more powerful Space Force,” says outgoing US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, highlighting findings from the Department of the Air Force in 2050 report to Congress. The 15,000 Space Force troops are expected to triple this year.
America’s enemies will deploy space-based weaponry in addition to advanced terrestrial firepower to target US systems in orbit and on the ground, Kendall warns, saying: “The ability of the joint force to project power depends on our success in space.”
But it is a race the US is losing to China, which the Pentagon predicts will grow its nuclear capability to match the US and , acquire additional international bases, and see exponential growth in space weaponry. China’s expanded military presence in space could disrupt US forces before they even reach conflict zones, Space Force chief General Chance Saltzman warned last month. “China can and will use their space capability to hold the joint and combined force at risk,” he said.
Beijing’s proven ability to pirate Western scientific advances and rapidly develop information technology has the US military lagging behind.
“We don’t refresh our IT in the government at anything like the rate the commercial world does,” admits Kendall.
China has launched more than 400 satellites – half used for military surveillance and targeting – in the past two years. It also plans to build its own moon base, with its Chang’e 7 mission laying the groundwork next year.
“ will remain hostile, but its ambitions will be limited by the weakness of its economy,” predicts the Pentagon study. Yet they will be no less dangerous. “There are reports that may field a counterspace weapon of mass destruction in space,” in contravention of the Outer Space Treaty, the Air Force warns.
The growing threat of war in space comes as powerful factions battle in Washington DC for control of America’s extra-terrestrial ambitions.
Musk’s SpaceX aims to send crewed missions to Mars to establish a permanent base for mineral exploitation and future space exploration, with a self-sustaining colony living under a dome.
A Blue Origin rocket lifts off from the Launch Site One launch in Texas (Image: Getty)
He also plans to build space stations and Moon bases, launch thousands more Starlink satellites and make space tourism affordable.
Bezos’s Blue Origin is developing a launch vehicle and lunar lander for Nasa, a new orbital space station, and more Kuiper satellites.
But with its constricted budget Nasa has less ambitious goals, aiming to return to the Moon and develop advanced space technologies, space telescopes and probes. Its mission statement concedes: “Unlike the way the space programme started, Nasa will not be racing a competition.”
Unlike Nasa, Musk and Bezos have the benefit of not being handcuffed by government regulations, committees and oversight in developing new technologies. Space Force chief Gen Saltzman admits: “The government was intentionally not designed to move fast,” while the private sector can innovate “unbelievably fast”.
Musk’s influence over US space policy grew even stronger this week when Trump nominated as Nasa’s next administrator billionaire Jared Isaacman, the founder of a payment processing company and a close Musk ally, who flew as a private astronaut on two of Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon missions.
Musk already wields what many consider to be excessive geopolitical influence, not only through his social media platform X, but also via his Starlink satellite communications network.
It is a vital part of many nations’ infrastructure and routinely used in to guide troop and drone attacks against .
But as Musk is entrusted with cutting government spending, Kendall warns that America could fall further behind in the space arms race if budgets are butchered.
Perhaps most worryingly, any future war in space will be conducted at lightning speed by computers, with artificial intelligence increasingly replacing human decision-making, especially in fast-moving battles.
Victory in space “is likely to be determined by which combatant has fielded the most advanced AI technology” says the Pentagon report.
As mankind stands on the threshold of exploring deeper space, paradoxically the potential grows to use space-based weapons to blast humanity back to the Stone Age.
Even Star Trek’s optimistic vision of a federation of planets was riven by conflicts with Romulans, Klingons and assorted interstellar foes. We may not confront extraterrestrial adversaries, yet those we have on Earth are forcing us to face a paradigm shift in space. As the Pentagon report puts it bluntly: “We are entering a new and more dangerous period of human history with increased risk and uncertainty.”
Or as Trump might say, paraphrasing Star Trek’s Spock: Live long and shoot first.