Dual-Use

The term ‘dual-use’ is often used to refer to space objects that (i) have both military and civilian functions, on the one hand, or that (ii) can be repurposed to be used for aggressive objectives. Some have suggested distinguishing between utilizing the term ‘dual-use’ for the former and ‘dual-purpose’ for the latter. Under such distinction:

• Dual-use refers to those space objects that can have (i) military and security, as well as (ii) civilian and commercial functions (such as, for example, GNSS). These uses can be carried out either simultaneously or alternately (the latter is sometimes known as ‘dual-capable’). Dual-use objects see the integration of military and civilian functions in one single object.
• Dual-purpose refers to those space objects that are designed to fulfil a benign objective (such as debris removal or on-orbit servicing), but they could potentially be repurposed to harm other space objects. Dual-purpose objects are in principle not designed or expected to perform military functions directly —although they may provide some form of support to military satellites through on-orbit servicing, for example— and they are also not intended to perform aggressive or hostile actions against other satellites.

Although dual-use and dual-purpose are different categories of objects, some overlap between the two is possible. In this sense, a dual-use object could also be a dual-purpose object if it possesses certain capabilities which could potentially be repurposed to harm another satellite (such as manoeuvrability, a capability that could be utilized to cause a satellite to collide with another).

The distinction between dual-use and dual-purpose is not universally accepted. Neither ‘dual-use’ nor ‘dual-purpose’ are terms of art in international law.