I just read that about this in the Sydney Morning Herald before coming to Barbelith... along with this piece of China fear from Asia Times (of all sources).
Check this out -- it's a story about how America could easily lose a conventional war with China 10 different ways. Literally, I mean. The author's an American general, and he counts off 10 ways America would lose a "shooting" war with China.
One of the ways is in space:
C4ISR stands for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance....
Having the mightiest and most modern armed forces in the world, America prides itself with having the most sophisticated and advanced C4ISR....Aside from communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, satellites are also used for navigation, most especially in guiding ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and other smart weapon systems to their targets. Without satellite guidance, such "smart" and precision weapons turn into "dumb" bombs and directionless missiles.
and
Neutralize or destroy the key satellites, and America’s major forces, such as aircraft carrier battle groups, are blinded, muted, and decapitated. This concept is part of China’s strategy for "defeating a superior with an inferior" called shashaojian, or "assassin’s mace". It is like the mace kept by ladies in their bags, which they use when attacked by a mugger or rapist. They squirt the mace into the eyes of an attacker to temporarily blind him, giving the intended victim time to escape.
China now has the capability to identify and track satellites. And for more than two decades they have been busy developing anti-satellite weapons. China has been developing maneuverable nano-satellites that can neutralize other satellites.... by electronic jamming, electro-magnetic pulse generation, clinging to the target and physically destroying it, bumping the target out of orbit, or simply exploding to bring the target satellite down with it. Such nano satellites can be launched in batches on demand by road-mobile DF21 or DF31 booster rockets.
Another anti-satellite weapon in the works is a land-based laser that blinds the sensitive sensors of satellites or even destroys them completely. Of course, if worse comes to worst, China can always use its weapon of last resort, destroying adversary satellites with a high-altitude nuclear burst....With the neutralization of its C4ISR, America would be like "a blind man trying to catch fish with his bare hands", to quote Mao Zedong.
Obviously, Asia Times thinks this space race is a for-real thing. I kinda suspect they're right -- NASA's chief just got home from a tour of China two weeks ago. He was sort of checking them out, I think, along with making diplomatic noises about joining the International Space Station and that. |
