"Eventually we're going to have to have the capability to take things out in orbit," stated Ryan. He called for developing anti-satellite weapons, which the Pentagon has been working on for years but has not deployed.

Ryan pointed to the expanding commerce being conducted by U.S. companies in space as well as the Pentagon's increased dependence on space satellites for carrying out many of its land-based operations, providing Washington with an economic and military advantage over other nations.

"We have to in some way be able to protect those assets," Ryan stated. "And that leads you to the thought that if you're going to be up there trying to protect them defensively, where do you cross the line into offensive operations?"

The Air Force general added, "Historically, wherever commerce has gone and our national interests have gone, so have gone our force. On land, sea, in the air, we tended to exploit the realm we were dependent upon. I would suggest that some time in the future here we're going to have to come to a policy decision on whether we're going to use space for both defensive and offensive capabilities."

Washington currently has about 100 military satellites orbiting the earth along with another 150 U.S.-based commercial satellites.

Prior to assuming the post of U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld headed up a commission on space that concluded that Washington must move forward with the weaponization of space. It called for Washington to develop anti-satellite weapons as well as a doctrine for space combat.

According to a Washington Post article, "The United States has already experimented with anti-satellite weapons, including a giant chemical laser fired in 1997 from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico that successfully disabled sensors on its target, an aging U.S. military satellite."

During NATO's bombing attacks against Serbia in 1999, the U.S. Air Force came "very close" to employing space-based offensive capabilities, wrote Barry Watts, the director of program analysis and evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in a report in February. During the course of this assault, B-2 bombers launched Joint Direct Attack Munitions, guided by signals from global positioning satellites.

The success of the B-2 "unquestionably reinforces the view that the United States is far ahead of other nations in its ability to enhance terrestrial military operations with space systems," Watts wrote.  
 
 
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