Executive Intent by Dale Brown

widely believed that Russia had a follow-on attack mission ready), and a handful of long-range bombers, and Russia had two dozen surviving ICBM launchers and a handful of nuclear submarines. The world breathed a silent sigh of relief because now everyone saw the unspeakable horror of nuclear war, and all nuclear nations pledged to work to mothball all of their remaining nuclear weapons and delivery systems so the nightmare was never repeated.
    â€œAnd now you’re proposing to create another arms race, Ann—this one in space,” Banderas said. “We put forty-eight weapon garages in orbit; China launches sixty; Russia launches a hundred. They start putting nukes in their garages; we modify our garages to attack their garages; they do the same to theirs. That’s a race we don’t need to start.”
    â€œThat race is already under way, sir,” Ann said. “Both Russia and China are stepping up their space launches; China has a space station aloft that they admit is being used for military research. Every nation knows that space is the ultimate high ground, andthat the United States is way ahead in space technology. They will do one of two things: cooperate or compete.”
    â€œMost countries are cooperating, Madam Secretary,” U.S. Space Command General Wiehl said. “With the Shuttle retired, we rely on the Russians almost every month for spacelift to the International Space Station.”
    â€œI know that, General, and it worries me,” Ann said. “What if the Russians decided not to send Soyuz to the ISS anymore?”
    â€œThey wouldn’t do that, Doctor,” Wiehl said. “Russia has invested a lot into the ISS, and they usually have one or two cosmonauts aboard. They rely on us as much as we rely on them.” But the sharpness of his rebuttal showed Ann that perhaps the question worried him more than he let on.
    â€œLet’s get back to Dr. Page’s proposal,” Secretary Banderas said, glancing at his watch. “Twenty billion to put forty-eight…you called them ‘garages’? What’s in this ‘garage’?”
    â€œEach weapon platform carries an infrared sensor, a tracking and targeting radar, electro-optical surveillance cameras, maneuvering engines, control and communications systems, and six Trinity kill vehicles—a mix of three antiballistic missile and defensive missiles, and three Mjollnir reentry vehicles,” Ann said. “The platforms are small enough to be placed into orbit with smaller boosters like Athena Two, Taurus, or the Midnight spaceplane, and they’re designed to be reloadable from manned or unmanned spacecraft.”
    â€œWhy forty-eight of these garages? Can it be done with fewer?”
    â€œThe number is based on commercial communications satellite structures that provide continuous global coverage, sir,” Ann said. “At an orbital altitude of about two to three hundred miles, which makes them easily accessible by our spaceplanes for servicing, there will be at least six platforms continuously overhead almost every spot on the planet.”
    â€œSo six garages with three antiballistic-missile interceptors—assuming some aren’t used to defend the garages themselves—is just eighteen interceptors able to respond at any moment to an attack,” Wiehl said. “Doesn’t sound like that many.”
    â€œIf we’re being attacked by more than eighteen enemy missiles—especially nuclear ones—we have a serious problem that wouldn’t be solved by twice as many interceptors, General,” Ann said with a wry smile. “The antiballistic-missile portion of the system is, of course, part of a layered system that includes boost-phase and terminal defenses.”
    She turned to Secretary Banderas. “Sir, you’ve said it yourself many times: the Air Force has to do more with less; we have to field multi-role systems. The platforms are much