The US is becoming increasingly concerned about the military capacity of China’s space program.
Sources told Reuters that a classified intelligence assessment completed late last year have been sending shivers through the Pentagon. The report apparently lays out a shocking degree of vulnerability of US satellites to sabotage by China. These satellites are responsible for everything from military communications to early warning missile defense systems.
US officials are charging that China’s anti-satellite activities are part of a major military build up. Cyber attacks emanating from China are on the rise and in 2012, China launched more commercial and military satellites than the United States.
It’s unclear what recent developments have sparked the Pentagon’s ire, but unconfirmed rumors of a possible anti-satellite test by China in the next few weeks could be the cause.
In 2007, China sparked an international outcry after it destroyed one of its ailing weather satellites, scattering over 10 thousand pieces of debris that threatened other spacecraft and low-earth orbit satellites.
But a strike against US satellites could be harder to detect. Sources within the U.S. government and outside experts say China could be capable of jamming signals from the ground or hitting a foreign satellite with a powerful electromagnetic pulse from one of their satellites.
The United States is also heavily invested in its own anti-satellite program. In 2008, shortly after China destroyed its weather satellite, a US Navy cruiser in the north Pacific used missile fire to destroy an American satellite. The official reason was the satellite was leaking toxic fuel, but some saw it as a warning to China.
Sources told Reuters that a classified intelligence assessment completed late last year have been sending shivers through the Pentagon. The report apparently lays out a shocking degree of vulnerability of US satellites to sabotage by China. These satellites are responsible for everything from military communications to early warning missile defense systems.
US officials are charging that China’s anti-satellite activities are part of a major military build up. Cyber attacks emanating from China are on the rise and in 2012, China launched more commercial and military satellites than the United States.
It’s unclear what recent developments have sparked the Pentagon’s ire, but unconfirmed rumors of a possible anti-satellite test by China in the next few weeks could be the cause.
In 2007, China sparked an international outcry after it destroyed one of its ailing weather satellites, scattering over 10 thousand pieces of debris that threatened other spacecraft and low-earth orbit satellites.
But a strike against US satellites could be harder to detect. Sources within the U.S. government and outside experts say China could be capable of jamming signals from the ground or hitting a foreign satellite with a powerful electromagnetic pulse from one of their satellites.
The United States is also heavily invested in its own anti-satellite program. In 2008, shortly after China destroyed its weather satellite, a US Navy cruiser in the north Pacific used missile fire to destroy an American satellite. The official reason was the satellite was leaking toxic fuel, but some saw it as a warning to China.
