A new report suggests that China is working to build a powerful space technology arms arsenal that it would use in the future to threaten the United States, Asia Times reported, and the Chines military’s main goal will be to deny the United States any access to the Indo-Pacific region.
The high-technology arms include anti-satellite missiles, lasers, GPS jammers and killer satellites.
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“Military operations supporting that goal [of denying access to the U.S.] would begin with attacks aimed at destroying and disrupting command and control capabilities, including ‘cyber and kinetic attacks on satellites and ground assets,’ the report says, Asia Times reported.
“The People’s Liberation Army [PLA] now has the capability of attacking, destroying or disrupting the 500 U.S. satellites circling the earth at heights of between 1,200 miles and 22,000 miles, according to a new study [“Foreign Space Capabilities”] by a U.S. think tank, the National Institute for Public Policy,” Asia Times said.
The report also stated that the PLA has “discussed plans for using space detonations of nuclear weapons to create electronics-killing Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attacks against orbiting satellites used by militaries for precision weapons targeting, navigation and communications,” Asia Times reported.
The report states: “China will increasingly be able to hold at risk U.S. satellites in all orbits and is developing a multi-dimensional ASAT [anti-satellite] capability supporting its anti-access/area denial strategies, with its most recent ASAT activities appearing to be focused on the refinement of its kinetic space weapons.”
Steve Lambakis wrote the report. He is a former space warfare expert with the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.
Asia Times also reported:
The report identifies other military space powers, such as Russia, but it singles out China for its large investment in building and fielding robust space warfare capabilities designed to support Beijing’s drive to challenge American information superiority and achieve regional and global hegemony.
Beijing views reliance on foreign satellite capabilities, such as GPS navigation satellites, as facilitating foreign domination that must not be permitted to continue. Thus it has invested billions in its space programs, including 19 Beidou orbiting navigation satellites, with plans for 16 more that will assist the PLA in expanding its global presence and long-range strike weapons.
