La guerre dans l'espace

Published in 1984, in the immediate aftermath of the announcement of the American Strategic Defense Initiative, this essay by physicist Marceau Felden examines the militarisation of space and the weapons that might be deployed there. The author reviews in turn the strategic doctrines of West and East, directed-energy weapons (lasers, particle beams), military satellites, missiles and spacecraft, supporting technologies (computing, infrared detection, telecommunications) and the state of Soviet technology. He closes by discussing the strategic consequences of a possible "war in space" and the place of France and Europe within it. Preface by François de Rose.