Washington: In what is seen as a major challenge to American space power, four of its greatest adversaries – Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – are investing in systems that can take out satellites on orbit, including funding laser systems, nuclear power and satellites that shadow American space vehicles.

Each of them are researching counterspace capabilities — kinetic or nonkinetic ways to taking out systems in space, says a report.

For the first time, the report includes data on the space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities of countries — that is, the ability of nations to track what is moving in various orbits. Japan and India are two nations investing heavily in that area, according to the report, while Iran appears to lag behind.

“This is important because you can’t protect [against] what you can’t see,” said Samson, the organization’s Washington office director. “This doesn’t mean that developing an SSA capability is an indication of an offensive counterspace programme, as there are many reasons why you would want that capability. But it is needed if you want to go offensive.”

Last year, four of the countries with counterspace investments — India, Japan, France and the US — have launched new military organisations specifically to deal with space-related issues, including a focus, at least in part, on counterspace efforts. In addition, the NATO alliance declared space an “operational domain” in December.

The vast majority of counterspace capabilities continue to reside with Russia, China and the United States, but other nations are funding programmes as well. France, India, Japan, Iran and North Korea are all known to be at least investing some money in counterspace efforts, whether through ballistic missile programmes or non-kinetic means such as cyber attacks.

When Pentagon and White House officials talked about the need for a Space Force last year, leaders emphasised a growing threat in space.