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Space-based Weapons

The new space policy in the United States might see President George W Bush allow the Pentagon greater authority to deploy space-based weapons, media reports have quoted sources in administration and defence experts as saying. According to reports, the new policy, being jointly drafted by the Defence Department, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and others, might see the proliferation of offensive weapons in space.

Issued by former US president Bill Clinton in 1996, the policy first aimed at using satellites for defensive purposes like keeping an eye on disarmament pacts and environmental cleanups. But security officials showed concerns about the chances of military and global communications satellites being attacked by enemy nations and said that with more nations launching satellites, the development of space weapons might not be far behind.
Ref. https://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/2851.html

Weapons Space-based

Space based weapons programs are very real and very cool. President Reagan wanted this when he started Star Wars project but never got as far as science can take us now. One of the closest space based weapons type projects is not really a weapon, but a defense. It would allow a laser to be fired at a missile from a satellite that would cause the missile to blow up before ever reaching its target! Can you imagine never having to worry about ICBM's because they wouldn't make it across the world? I don't, however, foresee and arms race any time soon. The general rule of an arms race is that you have to have arms invented to race to produce the most of. There aren't any real weapons developed yet that would cause the race to build them. When that happens, I'm sure another arms race will ensue, it always has in the past, from tanks too nukes.