We’d be fools to actually get into the kinetic energy anti-satellite business. It would be hugely disadvantageous for the U.S. to get into that game.
—Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Programs Gary Payton (no, not that Gary Payton) as quoted in Space News (Jeremy Singer, “USAF Interest In Lasers Triggers Concerns About Anti-Satellite Weapons,” May 1, 2006).