(OPINION) American space chiefs recently warned that China has tripled the number of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites it has in orbit, creating a space “army” that can destroy ground targets anywhere on Earth.
With the capability to blow up targets from thousands of miles away, these satellites could recognize targets for Chinese land, sea, and air assets to then strike with missiles and other armaments.
China currently has approximately 350 satellites concentrated around the Indo-Pacific region. Not only do these satellites continuously supply information back to Chinese military chiefs and permit the accurate targeting of remote targets, but they would also make Western interference in the region much more complicated to carry out.
“The Chinese have demonstrated clear intent with what they are fielding in space, and that intent is for the projection of power in the Indo-Pacific…
The Chinese are posturing forces in such a way to make the Indo-Pacific prohibitive in terms of U.S. and allied freedom of maneuver,” said Col. Raj Agrawal, commander of the U.S. Space Force Space Delta 2 unit.
Lt. Col. Travis Anderson, 75th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron commander, noted that China’s expanded space army “allows them to look into the Indo-Pacific and find the U.S. and allied forces’ ships.”
Anderson added that China’s constellation of military satellites was also “growing much faster than that of the United States.
Lt. Col. Galen Thorp, commander of 1st Space Operations Squadron, said: “Their use of space extends their ability to target at longer distances. It is twofold. Their space-enabled capabilities could be used to target Taiwan directly.”
Thorp also stated that Beijing could expand the range of its ballistic missiles “to a distance that makes intervention more challenging” if America responded to an invasion of Taiwan.
“The ballistic range has been there for a long time, but the ability to precisely target beyond the horizon, beyond what you can see with traditional radars is what space for them has enabled,” Thorp added.
China views self-governing Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not excluded force to take the island.
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Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, said China has built a “kill web” over the Pacific Ocean, with the aim of tracking and targeting enemy forces.
A kill web is “a dynamic network that seamlessly integrates intelligence and warfare capabilities across various domains, including land, sea, air, space and cyberspace,” as stated by the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Frankly, China is moving at a breathtaking speed. Since 2018, China has more than tripled their on-orbit intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites,” Whiting warned during the 39th Space Symposium.
“They are rapidly developing a range of counterspace weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities,” he added. “They’ve built a kill web over the Pacific Ocean to find, fix, track and, yes, target United States and allied military capabilities.”
