The problem is that the vetoes of the Clementine II and Kinetic-Kill ASAT programs were explicitly based on policy.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: United States Senate

In mid-September, Russian President Boris Yeltsin proposed that the United States and Russia initiate negotiations leading toward a series of antisatellite (ASAT) bans.

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As expected, international condemnation of the ASAT weapons test was both firm and swift, as India, Russia and Great Britain voiced their immediate disproval.

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Now we have a reverse situation, where at least some in Congress want to build a kinetic energy ASAT, as Senator Smith told us this morning.

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Congress, at that time, demanded that we halt the testing of the F-15 ASAT until we were prepared to enter negotiations on a comprehensive ban of all anti-satellite testing and deployment.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Space power: What is at stake, what will it take

It should come as no surprise that China was able to become the first country in over two decades to conduct a successful ASAT test, thereby joining the United States and the former Soviet Union as the only nations to have done so.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Straw in the solar wind

The suggestions that the United States has no need for a kinetic-kill ASAT capability for "the next decade or two" and that there are alternatives that already exist for negating or disrupting enemy space activities, such as destroying ground stations or jamming links, would also appear to rule out the use of the Airborne Laser program for anti-satellite purposes.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: United States Senate