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Old 04-26-2019, 03:05 PM
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Cool Pentagon official: Threats to US space systems 'at an all-time high'

Pentagon official: Threats to US space systems 'at an all-time high'
By: Russ Read - Washington Examiner - April 26, 2019 05:10 PM
RE: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...-all-time-high

A senior Pentagon official warns that the Russian and Chinese militaries are refocusing their efforts to counter U.S. space operations, posing an existential threat to America's military edge.

Russia and China reorganized their forces in 2015, putting special emphasis on countering America in space, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy Steve Kitay said this week during a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He explained that the two U.S. adversaries have gone beyond simply improving their own operations in the space domain and have taken an offensive posture.

"Not only do Chinese and Russian military doctrine indicate they view space [as] important to modern warfare, they view counter-space capabilities as a means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness," said Kitay.

The Department of Defense has been trying to spread the word about this growing threat. Kitay pointed to the Pentagon's recent efforts to engage the public, including two reports detailing the threat published by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Air and Space Center earlier this year.

The Pentagon has historically kept silent about its space operations in the interest of national security, but the two reports offer insight into the growing threats in the military space domain. Both highlight counter-space capabilities being developed and proliferated by U.S. adversaries, including anti-satellite missiles, space-based weapons, cyber and electronic warfare, and directed-energy weapons.

A major turning point came in January 2007, when China destroyed one of its own satellites, orbiting at an altitude of over 500 miles, with a kinetic weapon. The provocative action sparked concern that a space arms race could follow.

"It wasn't an accident," Adam Routh, a research associate with the Center for a New American Security's defense program, told the Washington Examiner. "I don't think they were totally ignorant to the consequences."

Several satellites crucial to communications, GPS, and other networks operate within the 500-mile range, according to Routh. In effect, China was signaling that it could threaten even the most integral space architecture. Routh added that Russia has developed a similar capability.

While Russia and China have invested in their own space-based communications and support systems, they recognize they will never achieve parity with U.S. GPS, command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.

"If you are China or Russia, you don't need the capabilities the U.S. has," said Routh. Instead, they have focused on the counter-space weapons outlined by Kitay and the Pentagon. "[It's] cheaper to develop these types of capabilities than it is to develop satellites with a similar advantage."

From a price perspective, it's a choice between developing an expensive native space architecture and spending a fraction of that cost on counter-space capabilities.

"The cost proposition is so in favor of the ASAT [anti-satellite] capability," said Routh. "It suggests it's cheaper to attack those satellites than it is to replace them."

That puts America and its allies that rely on U.S. space architecture at a disadvantage. China and Russia do not have the same global responsibilities, so they can afford to focus on counter-space weaponry.

Kitay told the forum that he believes the United States would prefer to keep the space domain free of conflict but that the country must be prepared to counter challenges should deterrence fail.


"Ladies and gentlemen, we are at a strategic inflection point," Kitay said. "The scope and scale of the threats to our space systems is at an all-time high and expanding."
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