The Impact of Space-Based Capabilities on the Global Balance of Power, in the Context of Technological and Military FieldRecent Developments

After the Second World War the technological progress in space systems has increased the relevance of the space domain, which has an essential strategic role in obtaining victory in all battlespace domains. Space capabilities perform a decisive role in all types of military operations, especially those involving the employment of nuclear weapons, in early warning, identification, location of nuclear facilities and launching sites, as well as in destroying them, in support for intermediary operations, collecting information in all warfighting domains, surveillance, reconnaissance, management and coordination of operating systems. Space-based capabilities are also relevant to the normal functioning of modern societies and can be used in activities characteristic to the entire political, economic, civil, information, cyber, infrastructure, and military spectrum. Thus, their interruption would lead to the suspension of the services on which a functional system, for example a state, its society, or departments depend.