Pentagon gears up for war in space

"For years," Noah Shachtman reports for Wired News, "the American military has spoken in hints and whispers, if at all, about its plans to develop weapons in space. But the U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan (PDF) changes all that. Released in November, the report makes U.S. dominance of the heavens a top Pentagon priority in the new century. And it runs through dozens of research programs designed to ensure that America can never be challenged in orbit -- from anti-satellite lasers to weapons that 'would provide the capability to strike ground targets anywhere in the world from space.'"