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Report: Space will likely be a battlefield in any U.S. conflict with China, Russia

  

Category:  Op/Ed

Via:  perrie-halpern  •  5 years ago  •  42 comments

Report: Space will likely be a battlefield in any U.S. conflict with China, Russia
"Space is now a war-fighting domain like the land, sea and air," a U.S. defense official said. "We can't view space as a sanctuary from attack."

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



By   Courtney Kube

WASHINGTON — A new U.S. intelligence report warns that both China and Russia are investing in weapons that could attack U.S. satellites and   assets in space , and that both nations are now preparing to use   space as a battlefield.

Last month, the Defense Intelligence Agency released a report about China's military capabilities, warning that the Asian country was making advances in counterspace technology that could threaten U.S. satellites responsible for communications, reconnaissance, GPS and early warnings of missile launches.

But a new DIA report, "Challenges to Security in Space," warns that both China and Russia are making advances in space technology, and that both are likely to turn to space early on in any   major military conflict   to cripple their adversaries.

190211-spy-satellite-ac-546p_360aa850e77 A Delta 4 Heavy rocket carrying a U.S. spy satellite lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. on Jan. 19, 2019. Matt Hartman / AP file

"Space is now a war-fighting domain like the land, sea and air," a U.S. defense official said. "We can't view space as a sanctuary from attack."

The U.S. military has grown increasingly   reliant on space assets   in recent years. It has communications satellites that provide internet and mobile services, reconnaissance satellites that enable signals intelligence and provide information on enemy force positions, as well as space-based sensors that alert the United States to missile launches, and position, navigation, and timing satellites that provide GPS to the military and to most Americans.

"The use of space has greatly expanded U.S. military ability to project power globally," a U.S. defense intelligence official said, adding they can do so with fewer troops deployed and therefore less risk to American service members. One common example is the use of drones, which rely on satellite signals to communicate.

While China has demonstrated an anti-satellite missile and may have perfected a laser that could attack U.S. assets in space, Russia is still working to perfect those technologies and, according to the report, focusing heavily on directed energy weapons, usually lasers or high-powered microwaves, that can disable or even destroy assets in space.

This mobile, ground-based weapon system "capable of destroying space targets," the report warns, "is likely to be operational within the next several years."

U.S. defense and intelligence officials say neither China nor Russia has surpassed the U.S. in space capabilities, but that they are investing broadly to try to best the American military, and that they are now integrating weapons that could attack in space into their conventional units.

190211-spy-satellite-ac-547p_360aa850e77 United Launch Alliance's Delta IV heavy rocket launchs from Space Launch Complex 6 carrying a U.S. spy satellite lifting off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif., on Jan. 19, 2019. Matt Udkow / Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP file

"What concerns me the most is them having a holistic force," the defense intelligence official said. "We need to be postured to address these challenges or we do risk losing our advantages in space. We are at risk unless we posture ourselves properly."

Asked if the U.S. is now in a space race with Russia and China, the defense official said, "We certainly recognize this as a competition."


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Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
1  seeder  Perrie Halpern R.A.    5 years ago

And is this supposed to be good news?

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
1.1  cjcold  replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A. @1    5 years ago

Thing being that NASA, CNSA (China), ESA (Europe), ISRO (India), JAXA (Japan), RFSA (Russia) all have the capability.

I remember watching the early NASA flights with rapt attention.

Hoped it wouldn't come to this.

Read a lot of Heinlein as a kid. I think he saw what was coming.

 
 
 
dave-2693993
Junior Quiet
2  dave-2693993    5 years ago

I think the concept of space as a sanctuary from attack was mainly a 40's, 50's and 60's sci-fi novel thing with regard to "present day" of the time.

China destroyed an orbiting satellite some time ago. Though that hit was on an object following a known predictable path, it still showed a dangerous capability.

Work on automated and human controlled orbital weapons platforms have been in the lab for some time now as well.

Though the author presented some interesting and information, I think she might be a little naive about the subject. I hope she continues her interest in the subject, as I liked her writing style.

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
2.1  cjcold  replied to  dave-2693993 @2    5 years ago

Worked in the periphery of NASA and am here to say I love NASA! Only idiotic presidents/vice presidents screw with NASA.

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
2.1.1  cjcold  replied to  cjcold @2.1    5 years ago

Our current vice president is seeking to destroy NASA.

 
 
 
dave-2693993
Junior Quiet
2.1.2  dave-2693993  replied to  cjcold @2.1    5 years ago

Given the nature of their business, they tend to have air tight processes. I am not sure how involved you may have been with the re-engineering and design of the Shuttles external fuel tank when the ISS's orbit was moved to a higher latitude to put it in range of Chechnya, but it was an incredible feat if engineering. To help with that effort risk management played a key role in keeping the project within attainable goals.

No shooting from the hip there.

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
2.1.3  cjcold  replied to  dave-2693993 @2.1.2    5 years ago

Have known a few NASA folk and the vast majority are much smarter than I could ever hope to be.

 
 
 
FLYNAVY1
Professor Guide
3  FLYNAVY1    5 years ago

Nothing really new.  The USAF developed the ASM-135, while the tests proved successful in September 1985, the program shut down in 1988.  Most of our potential advisories have some sort of ASAT capability. 

The goal here is to "blind the other guy" with either a soft or hard kill of satellites that would be providing our opponents with reconnaissance information related to ship, aircraft, or troop movements. 

 
 
 
nightwalker
Sophomore Silent
3.1  nightwalker  replied to  FLYNAVY1 @3    5 years ago

Yeah, next they'll be warning that Russia and China have nukes in orbit over the U.S. China and Russia and who knows who else have had anti-satellite missiles for almost as long as we have and people have dreamed of long range particle beams and powerful lasers before lasers actually worked. A lot of those satellites up there are ours, how can you protect them?

What I'm wondering is why they're digging out all this cold war stuff, dusted it off and presented it as news. Is this step one of burning a couple hundred Billion on "space cops?"

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
3.1.1  Kavika   replied to  nightwalker @3.1    5 years ago
What I'm wondering is why they're digging out all this cold war stuff, dusted it off and presented it as news. Is this step one of burning a couple hundred Billion on "space cops?"

BINGO

 
 
 
FLYNAVY1
Professor Guide
3.1.2  FLYNAVY1  replied to  nightwalker @3.1    5 years ago

Agreed.  I see the South China Sea being the major world flashpoint right now.

My problem is not knowing how the Chinese government is going to act.  It looks like their economy is heading south of the much needed 7% growth rate.  If/when their economy hits a rough patch, is the government going to point fingers at the US and the West as a diversionary tactic?  Will the sabre rattling ramp up as a diversion from internal economic issues?  Taiwan then comes into play, then Japan and the Koreas.  The whole area is a fire in need of a single spark for ignition.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
3.1.3  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  FLYNAVY1 @3.1.2    5 years ago

China has come so far so fast in the past four decades that I think that it must know it has too much to lose if they were to start a war.  Besides, its military and military assets and installations are really mostly defensive rather than offensive.  The Belt Road project extends its reach but is not a military installation.  I would be concerned if China were to claim beyond what it considers its sovereign territory according to ancient maps, and in that regard I mean the islands in the South China Sea, the islands in dispute with Japan, Taiwan and Tibet. Has China interfered with peaceful commercial traffic through the South China sea?  I don't think so, but I do know that they resent provocation by American warships.

 
 
 
FLYNAVY1
Professor Guide
3.1.4  FLYNAVY1  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @3.1.3    5 years ago

Good evening to you Buzz...

China's neighbors aren't going to observe the "Nine Dash Line" and the world is under no obligation to observe any sort of territorial limits related to the artificial islands the Chinese government has built and placed offensive anti-ship weapons on.

We're going to see some ship crunches in high stakes games of chicken. We're going to see aircraft collisions because of "hot-shot" fighter pilots. Lets hope cooler heads maintain themselves when there is an incident where there is loss of life. 

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
3.1.5  seeder  Perrie Halpern R.A.  replied to  Kavika @3.1.1    5 years ago

I think that this article is reflecting on the fact that the Chinese seem to be more active in space than they have been in the past. Then really it was only us and Russia (USSR). 

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
3.1.6  seeder  Perrie Halpern R.A.  replied to  FLYNAVY1 @3.1.2    5 years ago

I agree that the Chinese have an economic issue that they are going to use in some way to blame us and its neighbors. They have also been very busy lending money to countries who can't pay them back, so what they get in lew of payment, is water rights, essentially controlling throughways and ports. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
3.1.7  Kavika   replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A. @3.1.6    5 years ago
They have also been very busy lending money to countries who can't pay them back, so what they get in lew of payment, is water rights, essentially controlling throughways and ports. 

Also oil, and iron ore rights to mine...Think South America. It's a done deal.

 
 
 
dave-2693993
Junior Quiet
3.1.8  dave-2693993  replied to  Kavika @3.1.7    5 years ago

Belt and road and all we do is fiddle fart around with this quarters P&L statement.

 
 
 
Split Personality
Professor Guide
3.1.9  Split Personality  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @3.1.3    5 years ago

The Autobahn was designed to 

  • put people to work
  • so they could afford cars
  • and stimulate the German economy in the late 1930's
  • OH, and to rush military units to the eventual front lines that Hitler dreamed of.

The Eisenhower Interstate Highway system was essentially built for the same reasons although the idea and legislation was kicked around since 1916.

The Interstate Highway System gained a champion in President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Army Convoy on the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the Reichsautobahn system, the first "national" implementation of modern Germany's Autobahn network, as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander Of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II. [14] He recognized that the proposed system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion.
 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
5  Kavika     5 years ago

A few weeks ago China landed the first craft on the ''dark side of the moon''....Interesting development and according to Xi, China will be investing heavily in space with the next objective to establish a base on the moon. 

China also claims that it shared data on their moon landing with NASA.

 
 
 
evilone
Professor Guide
5.1  evilone  replied to  Kavika @5    5 years ago

NASA helped the Chinese by monitoring photographing the landing.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
6  Buzz of the Orient    5 years ago

Just watched a dystopian movie today - "Perfect Sense".  I wonder if the fact that I posted an article about end of the world movies recently was a kind of premonition....

I hope not.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
7  Sparty On    5 years ago

A good politician would immediately try to start talks with the powers that be to ink a "Space Treaty."   No easy task i'm sure but neither were some of the Nuclear Arms control treaties like SALT and START.

This space race business could get out of control quickly for everyone without it. 

 
 
 
FLYNAVY1
Professor Guide
7.1  FLYNAVY1  replied to  Sparty On @7    5 years ago

Russia, the UK and the US along with a number of other countries have ratified the UN Resolution 2222 (XXI) Which:

Calls upon States to refrain from placing in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction or from installing such weapons on celestial bodies, which was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly on 17 October 1963,

The Outer Space Treaty does not ban military activities or conventional weapons within space.  As such, satellites are fair game!

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
7.1.1  Sparty On  replied to  FLYNAVY1 @7.1    5 years ago
along with a number of other countries

China signatory?   If not we can wipe our six with it.

In my mind this Resolution needs to be updated regardless.  

A lot has changed in the last 55 years.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
7.1.2  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Sparty On @7.1.1    5 years ago

UN resolutions are not worth the paper they're written upon.  What has the UN done about Kim's ignoring those limiting his nuclear and missile actions, or Iran's?  Anyway the UN is much too busy looking for new things to try to fuck Israel with.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
7.1.3  Sparty On  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @7.1.2    5 years ago
What has the UN done about Kim's ignoring those limiting his nuclear and missile actions, or Iran's?

You not going to get me to defend the UN but a better question would be.

What has China done?

No one has the power to help change NK's ways more than they do in this regard.  

Not the US and certainly not the UN.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
7.1.4  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Sparty On @7.1.3    5 years ago
"What has China done?"

That's a horse of a different colour.  The UN holds itself out as an organization that exists for the purpose of peacekeeping, and even sends out peacekeeping forces. China has no more responsibility to control NK than any other country does. If China does it would be for its own purposes so I'm sure it does what it needs to do.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
7.1.5  Sparty On  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @7.1.4    5 years ago

Like i said, i'm not in the habit of defending the UN.   That said, i wouldn't be defending China either.   They have as much or more sway over NK than anyone else.   To say they don't have that potential is simply disingenuous.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
7.1.6  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Sparty On @7.1.5    5 years ago

I agree that they have the potential to have more sway than anyone else, but considering the state of China's present relationship with the USA they might be holding that potential as a chip in the game.

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
7.1.7  Sparty On  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @7.1.6    5 years ago

Yes and a dangerous game it is.   For everyone .....  but especially for that part of the world.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
9  CB    5 years ago

Oh, uuh-uuh. From the looks of that image, what is needed out there is literally a damn clean-up industry. Space debri sucks! We need more responsible treatment of this sacred 'space.'

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
10  CB    5 years ago

Now to the heart of the matter. I know that big boys and girls have to keep up with their advanced toys, but damn. Now that we understand space won't fight us back or we doomed to exploit it? I mean, come on, are we gearing up to fight over 'territorial' space?

Who are humans, really?! Some human species introspection is called for here and now.

 
 
 
Split Personality
Professor Guide
11  Split Personality    5 years ago
Who are humans, really?! Some human species introspection is called for here and now.

.

Nonsense. We are simply peeling the onion in reverse.

Submariners deal with different dimensions "blindly" in a gravity/crushing/defying environment every day while the planet spins and the currents flow,

While the surface ships continue thousands of years of battling the ocean and "heavenly" environments,

even as the 'air forces' deal with the same longitude & latitude above the surface with air flow, wind, water and varying degrees of weightlessness and radioactive challenges to our survive ability.

The earth's fluctuating and moving magnetic fields add challenges to those efforts as well as ground troops on the various continents.

Every light year outward from earth will likely cause unique experiences for a millennia of exploration to come.

Meanwhile ....

Kudos and fare winds to the Mars Rover, whose last message after 15 years was;

WARNING; LOW BATTERY !!!

On the next revolution, Houston was unable to communicate but vowed to find Rover and retrieve it in the not so distant future.

Rest in Peace Rover.....

until we find you once again.

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
11.1  cjcold  replied to  Split Personality @11    5 years ago

Been a fan of NASA from the early days and I still drink Tang.

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
11.1.1  seeder  Perrie Halpern R.A.  replied to  cjcold @11.1    5 years ago
and I still drink Tang.

LOL.. I didn't even know they still make Tang. How very cool!

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
11.2  CB  replied to  Split Personality @11    5 years ago
Every light year outward from earth will likely cause unique experiences for a millennia of exploration to come.

SP, I am all for the positives of man in space. And no doubt, I love that you waxed poetic. We need beauty and remembrance. Thank you, immensely.

But, the operatives words in this article are "space," "battlefield," and "conflict." To which, I solemnly and rhetorically ask:

WHY?!

 
 
 
Split Personality
Professor Guide
11.2.1  Split Personality  replied to  CB @11.2    5 years ago

Check your DNA.

The earliest recorded battles are in  cuneiforms that are over 10,000 years old...

We are, what we are........

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
11.2.2  CB  replied to  Split Personality @11.2.1    5 years ago

I've made my point, SP.

 
 
 
KDMichigan
Junior Participates
12  KDMichigan    5 years ago

We are still in a space war? I thought Ronnie Raygun settled that? 

 
 

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