China Rapidly Building Advanced Arms for Use Against U.S.

China Holds Military Parade To Commemorate End Of World War II In Asia (Getty Images)

 

Space weapons, drones using artificial intelligence priority in Beijing military buildup

China is rapidly building space weapons and other advanced arms infused with artificial intelligence capabilities as part of Beijing’s bid for military dominance, according to a congressionally sponsored study.

Anti-satellite missiles and orbiting killer satellites, swarms of attack drones, hypersonic missiles, maneuvering warheads, lasers, and high-speed rail guns are key systems China is fielding in the coming years in a bid to leap ahead of the U.S. military supremacy.

Pentagon Confirms Chinese Fired Lasers at U.S. Pilots

Chinese People’s Liberation Army personnel attend the opening ceremony of China’s new military base in Djibouti / Getty Images

 

Incidents near Beijing’s Djibouti military base injured American air crews flying nearby

The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that Chinese nationals fired lasers near a military base in east Africa against U.S. military aircraft in the region, injuring several pilots.

Pentagon Press Secretary Dana White said the U.S. government made diplomatic protests to the Chinese government over several recent incidents of laser firings near China’s first overseas military base at Djibouti.

China ASAT Test Part of Growing Space War Threat

Contrails from test of a Chinese anti-satellite missile

 

DNI outlines growing danger to satellites from Beijing’s missiles, lasers and robot spacecraft

China earlier this month conducted the latest flight test of one of its newest and deadliest strategic missiles—the DN-3 anti-satellite interceptor.

The test, as in the past, was masked by the Chinese military as a missile defense interceptor test. American defense officials, however, said the DN-3 is one of several direct ascent anti-satellite missiles capable of destroying most U.S. satellites.

A more significant development was disclosed eight days later through intelligence made public during a Senate hearing: China is moving beyond the testing and development of space weapons and will soon deploy military units dedicated to attacking satellites and conducting space warfare.

U.S. military satellites in crisis as foreign weapons advance and proliferate

(Associated Press/File)

 

The U.S. military’s satellite communications are facing a crisis, threatened by a growing array of foreign weapons, including cyberattack capabilities, lasers, electronic jammers and anti-satellite weapons, according to a Pentagon study.

An executive summary of the report by the Defense Science Board warns that military satellite communications used for global operations “will be contested by a myriad of effects ranging from reversible to destructive.”

“The estimated and projected electronic threats against satellite communication (satcom) have rapidly escalated in the last few years and will continue to increase in the foreseeable future,” the report says.

China, Russia Planning Space Attacks on U.S. Satellites

Photographers follow a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, carrying the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM military communications satellite / AP

 

 

Critical space infrastructure faces crippling missile strikes, small satellites, lasers

China and Russia are preparing to attack and disrupt critical U.S. military and intelligence satellites in a future conflict with crippling space missile, maneuvering satellite, and laser attacks, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the Air Force Space Command, said the threat to U.S. space systems has reached a new tipping point, and after years of post-Cold War stagnation foreign states are focused on curbing U.S. space systems.

Russia develops directed-energy weapons

Asked by TASS to comment on a message from the DSEi 2015 international show in London to the effect that the Royal Navy intends to adopt lasers for service by 2020, the Russian defense industry source said: “Russian engineers developing weapons reliant on new physical principles are aware of the foreign efforts in the directed-energy weapons field”.

Of the basic types of the above weapons, he singled out laser, acoustic, holographic and kinetic systems. “First off, these are lasers designed not to destroy objects but to ‘blind’ them because the latter requires far less energy,” he added.

China Expands Space Warfare Capabilities

New weapons aimed at undermining US systems

New arenas of warfare are opening up. The U.S. military is already heavily reliant on satellites and communication systems, and countries like China are actively trying to undermine these systems.

“There’s not an operation conducted anywhere at any level that is not somehow dependent on space and cyberspace,” said General William L. Shelton, Commander of the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, on Sept. 21, according to the Department of Defense.

China Conducts Test of New Anti-Satellite Missile

As it’s been reported here a few times: Like Iran, like China… or vice versa. See the following previous entries for further information:

• Iran sends monkeys into space – so can place nukes anywhere on earth
• Iran Says It Will Send Monkey into Space in 2012
• Iran launches observation satellite: media

China’s military on Monday conducted the first test of a new ground-launched anti-satellite missile that was fired into space and disguised as a space-exploration rocket, according to U.S. officials.

The test was carried out early Monday from the Xichang Space Launch center and was identified by officials as the new Dong Ning-2 ASAT missile.

U.S. Colleges Infected by Foreign Spies: FBI

“Placing academics at U.S. research institutions under the guise of legitimate research offers access to developing U.S. technologies and cutting-edge research” in such areas as information systems, lasers, aeronautics and underwater robots, the report said.

…

Enabling China

Over the years, American universities have enabled China “to leapfrog into the cutting edge of military capability on the way to superpower status,” Richard Fisher, senior fellow on Asian Military Affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Alexandria, Virginia, said in an e-mail.

Chen Dingchang, the head of a Chinese military-sponsored working group on anti-satellite technology, led a delegation in 1998 to the University of Florida to learn about diamond-coating manufacturing, used in missile seekers and other systems, said Mark Stokes, executive director of the Project 2049 Institute in Arlington, Virginia, which studies Chinese aerospace technology. In a 1999 report in a Chinese journal, the authors, including Chen, said the university’s cooperation would assist in overcoming a technical bottleneck in China’s development of anti-satellite warheads.

Full article: U.S. Colleges Infected by Foreign Spies: FBI (Bloomberg Businessweek)

French defense contractor flouting export rules

Thales Alenia Space selling sensitive technology to Chinese…

The U.S. government cut off exports of satellites to China in the 1990s after U.S. aerospace companies helped make China’s strategic nuclear missiles more reliable by improperly assisting China’s space launchers.

According to the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military, the Chinese are developing an array of space warfare capabilities, including anti-satellite missiles and lasers. The report said China’s military has stated that it plans on “destroying, damaging, and interfering with the enemy’s reconnaissance … and communications satellites” in a future conflict. The report also said such systems and navigation and early warning satellites are targets in an initial phase of attack that would “blind and deafen the enemy.”

China’s development of space warfare capabilities is a major concern of U.S. national security officials opposed to loosening export controls on commercial space technology.

Thales built the Chinasat 6B satellite in 2007 and in 2008 began advertising Spacebus 4000 satellites for sale as “ITAR-free.” It then exported several of the satellites, including some to China, a country limited from such sales by under the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations.

Full article: French defense contractor flouting export rules (Free Beacon)