Top U.S. generals have issued a dire warning: China’s military forces are rapidly building up their space warfare capabilities with the explicit aim of using those tools in a future war, possibly with the U.S.
National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz has all the details. Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeff Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a security forum in Aspen, Colorado, that China’s advancing military space program includes development and research, robust launch capabilities, lunar activities and overall mounting space attack capabilities “in multiple orbits that they did not used to be in before.”
China plans to displace the United States as the global leader in space and to leverage its space assets to threaten U.S. satellites based on Chinese military planners’ perceptions that American forces will be vulnerable if space capabilities are destroyed or disrupted, Gen. Kruse said.
The warnings about China’s space-based military capabilities come amid broader fears that space, which for decades had been mostly a peaceful domain that fostered international cooperation, is rapidly being militarized.
Last month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, Ohio Republican, warned of a new Cuban Missile Crisis amid Russia’s ongoing efforts to put anti-satellite weapons in space, with Moscow perhaps even eyeing the placement of a nuclear weapon in orbit.
And it’s become increasingly clear how vital space will be in future conflicts.
The Russia-Ukraine war has proven the deep value of space assets, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink internet terminals that played a crucial role in helping Ukraine stop the Russian military advance early in the conflict. There has been speculation in national security circles that eliminating systems such as Starlink was a key motivator in Russia’s plan to put anti-satellite weapons in orbit.
