China, Russia attacking US satellites ‘every single day,’ Space Force general says

https://americanmilitarynews.com ^ | DECEMBER 01, 2021 | RYAN MORGAN

[RomanSoldier19]

China and Russia are targeting U.S. satellites with electronic attacks “every single day,” U.S. Space Force Gen. David Thompson told the Washington Post last week.

In an interview with Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum, Thompson said, “The threats are really growing and expanding every single day. And it’s really an evolution of activity that’s been happening for a long time.” Thompson reportedly declined repeated questions about whether U.S. satellites have ever been targeted with kinetic means, which could have done more significant permanent damage.

The Space Force second-in-command said China represents the greater threat to U.S. satellites, as it is rapidly deploying new ground-based systems to target space satellites.

“The Chinese are actually well ahead [of Russia],” Thompson said. “They’re fielding operational systems at an incredible rate.” Thompson, who is the Vice Chief of Space Operations for the Space Force, said China and Russia are regularly targeting U.S. satellites with what he called “reversible attacks,” meaning attacks whose effects don’t permanently damage the satellites. He said the Russian and Chinese attacks typically employ non-kinetic means like lasers, radiofrequency jammers and cyber attacks, to disrupt the operations of U.S. satellites.

[RomanSoldier19]

[Vermont Lt]

Of course…the US would NEVER do anything like that. Nope, we are the ethical leaders in the world.

[SaxxonWoods]

Act of war.

So do nothing?

[DesertRhino]

Yeah sure. If the situation was that dire, they would have never fired a quality leader like Col Lohmier because he reported marxism and hate for the US Constitution in his training.

Space Force just wants money.

[SpaceBar]

The 2021 version of pirates off the Barbary coast.

[Trumpisourlastchance]

Headline does not match the article. Totally different words & meanings.

[RomanSoldier19]

[Pearls Before Swine]

I would hope we’re not too polite to do the same thing.

[1Old Pro]

I thought Puhsaki scoffed at a space force?

[JustaTech]

I’ve heard we’ve had spy satellites attacked by ground-based lasers.

Other potential attacks could be in the form of intense RF energy from ground or space, directed at signals intelligence satellites. The ground control of certain satellites could be disrupted or hacked, causing the asset to be disabled or even destroyed.

Then there are the stealthy mines. Designed to be invisible to radar while sneaking up next to a valuable asset in space. Once it’s close enough it could fire projectiles into the target or it could generate an EMP pulse to disable the asset.