“Mind-boggling” is the phrase House Drive Gen. Probability Saltzman used to explain China’s explosive advances in area as he warned the U.S. is on a path to dropping its dominance in orbit.
Testifying earlier than the bipartisan U.S.-China Fee on Thursday, Saltzman stated China is “heavily investing” in each ground-based and space-based weapons designed to disable enemy satellites, together with kinetic strikes, radio-frequency jamming and directed vitality weapons.
The U.S., in the meantime, is “resource limited” and nonetheless weighing “which ones we could get the most utility out of,” he stated.
The final’s testimony got here as Congress weighs how one can counter rising Chinese language aggression in area and whether or not the House Drive has the instruments to maintain tempo. China elevated its army spending by 7% this yr, stockpiling anti-satellite missiles and claiming to own directed vitality weapons that use concentrated vitality beams to jam satellite tv for pc alerts.
THE US IS NOT READY FOR A NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN WITH CHINA, KEY CONSERVATIVES WARN TRUMP
U.S. Chief of House Operations Probability Saltzman (REUTERS/Nobuhiro Kubo)
There’s additionally a danger if China have been to destroy a satellite tv for pc in orbit, an motion that might set off a world disaster, Saltzman warned, pointing to lingering particles from Russia’s 2021 anti-satellite missile take a look at and China’s 2007 take a look at, which proceed to threaten spacecraft security.
China’s space-based concentrating on capabilities have “grown most impressively” lately, Saltzman stated, with lots of of satellites now devoted to monitoring U.S. property in orbit. That growth has given the House Drive a “new mission set”: to disclaim China the power to surveil American satellites in actual time.
But Saltzman warned the U.S. is falling behind. The House Drive price range has shrunk in absolute phrases, whilst area turns into an more and more contested army area. Lawmakers, he stated, nonetheless function with an “out of sight, out of mind” mindset.
“It’s just still a low priority in terms of the policy regime,” Saltzman stated. “The modern battlefield has to account for the space domain. If we can’t continue to protect our use of the domain – and we can’t deny an adversary – that’s going to be tied to the military objectives in any of the other domains.
China launches a Long March-2C rocket into space. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“I consider we now have extra missions unfunded than funded,” Saltzman said, adding that Space Force still lacks the size and capabilities needed to carry out its expanding responsibilities.
The U.S., for example, does not have an operational quantum satellite, but China does. Quantum satellites can enable ultra-secure communications and advanced navigational technologies.
China’s investment in space-based tech for long-range precision strikes and reusable launch vehicles “characterize an inflection level in area entry which will end in China overtaking U.S. management,” Saltzman said.
China is encroaching on U.S. space dominance. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Just weeks ago, Space Force Vice Chief of Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein revealed that China has been practicing satellite “dogfighting,” a sign of its growing ability to conduct complex operations in orbit.
Space Force has observed “5 totally different objects in area maneuvering out and in and round one another in synchronicity and in management,” he said.
“That’s what we name dogfighting in area,” Guetlein said. “They’re training techniques, strategies and procedures to conduct on-orbit operations from one satellite tv for pc to a different.”
