2020 Global Counterspace Capabilities Report
About This Report
This report provides an open-source assessment of global counterspace capabilities, examining how a growing number of countries are developing technologies that can disrupt, degrade, or destroy space-based systems. As space becomes increasingly congested and contested, the report highlights a parallel rise in military interest and investment in space warfare strategies, posing new threats to global stability and space sustainability.
Drawing from public domain sources, this annual assessment analyzes five categories of counterspace threats—direct-ascent, co-orbital, electronic warfare, directed energy, and cyber—from nations including China, Russia, the United States, and emerging space actors like India, Iran, and North Korea. The report underscores how most current military activity involves non-kinetic capabilities, with kinetic systems largely under development or testing. Importantly, it calls attention to the cascading consequences such capabilities may have, not only for national security but for the global economy and civil society.
Executive Summaries
