Washington: Not only has China’s space fleet ballooned over the past decade, but Beijing is increasingly using maneuvering satellites to crisscross geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) in order to keep eyes on, and potentially do harm to, their US counterparts, according to Space Force and industry officials.
Chinese satellites are “zigzagging” from altitudes above GEO, through the belt and then to slightly lower altitudes, often coming uncomfortably close to US satellites, Clint Clark of sky-watching firm Exoanalytics said.
“China doesn’t sit still. They’re all over the sky. Why are they doing this? It’s because they’re coming for you. In their strategy documents, they will tell you, whoever controls space controls the Earth,” he told an audience made up largely of Guardians at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2024 conference in Orlando.
“They go up and down the belt. They hold everybody at risk. Periodically, they do crazy stuff. They’ll get on top of a satellite,” Clark said. “And sometimes they’ll pick it up and move it away. They’re practicing those tactics.”
US Space Force Chief Master Sgt. Ronald Lerch said that Chinese authors have openly written about imaging the Space Force’s own eyes in the heavens, the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites, and the brand new SILENTBARKER inspection satellites the service is operating jointly with the National Reconnaissance Office.
China’s on-orbit fleet has gone from 36 satellites in 2010 to more than 1,000 this year, he stressed. Beijing’s current space fleet includes 292 electro-optical and 43 radar satellites for imaging targets on Earth, and 74 signals intelligence gathering satellites, according to a slide he presented — along with a slide showing a Chinese rendering of a GSSAP bird and a synthetic aperture radar image of the US naval base at Norfolk, Va.
Also included in the fleet are the 60 satellites making up the Beidou positioning, navigation and timing constellation, Lerch said. “So, they went from no or barely any capability in 2010 to now they have their own [reliable] GPS. 60 of them — 24 in MEO [medium Earth orbit], three in GEO, and then another three in IXO or inclined GEO, and then one backup for each individual spacecraft,” he elaborated.
Beijing’s growing space capabilities have meant an increase in the PLA’s ability to threaten US forces both in space and on Earth, according to Space Force and industry officials here. “Norm-shattering behaviours have been enabled because of their ability to have space and what that’s able to offer,” Lerch said, noting that Chinese behaviour has been “increasingly assertive” as their space power has grown.
“Their specific goals are to be able to track and target us high value assets at the time and place of their choosing,” Brig Gen Anthony Mastalir, commander of US Space Force Indo-Pacific, told reporters. “We’re seeing all signs pointing to being able to target US aircraft carriers, as well as high value assets in the air like tankers and AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft]. This is a strategy to keep the US from intervening, and that’s what their space architecture is designed for.”
Clark said China for the past 10 years also has “been practicing” space-based methods for US space capabilities, with systems for rendezvous and proximity operations; docking and capture; characterisation and inspection; and counter inspection; as well as developing co-orbital and direct ascent anti-satellite weapons.
“And it’s not just that they’ve been practicing them. They’ve been doing them in very specific ways, with huge delta-v’s relative to what we’re able to produce, and they’re doing them in ways that challenge our kill chains,” he said.
Mastalir said that in order for the US Space Force to counter China’s increasing threat, it is important for the service to “scale our capabilities to meet and exceed what’s required in the future, because the PRC is moving. … As they continue to evolve, we must be prepared to take on those challenges.”
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