Chinese space technology capable of jamming satellites is ‘on the march’, top Pentagon official says

‘They take a look at our space capability and want to equal and exceed those,’ Rear Admiral Michael Studeman says

Aside from destructive counter-space technologies, China also is pursuing parallel programmes for military and commercial communications satellites

2-MIN READ2-MIN

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the unmanned X-37B drone lifts off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US. File photo: AFP

Published: 8:41pm, 10 Jul 2021Updated: 8:41pm, 10 Jul 2021

China is making sizeable, long-term investments in weapons designed to jam or destroy satellites as the country seeks to rapidly narrow the gap in space technology with the US, according to the top intelligence official for the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific command.

China is pushing to develop antisatellite weapons with capabilities from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space – all that, they’re on the march,” Rear Admiral Michael Studeman said this week during an intelligence-security trade group’s webinar.

Studeman’s comments mark the most current unclassified assessment of the counter-space capabilities of a nation that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin repeatedly refers to as the top challenge for US defence planning and spending.

China’s threats to US satellites as well as Russian advances in counter-space technologies were among the primary justifications American officials cited for establishing the US Space Force, the sixth US military service branch and the regional Space Command, during the Trump administration.

“They take a look at our space capability and want to equal and exceed those and be able to dominate to guarantee themselves the manoeuvring they need to be able to secure their objectives if they’re in a fight,” Studeman said.

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in April that the Chinese military “will continue to integrate space services – such as satellite reconnaissance and positioning, navigation, and timing and satellite communications – into its weapons and command-and-control systems to erode the US military’s information advantage.”