The chief of the US Space Force has warned that China is putting military capabilities into space at a \u201cmind-boggling\u201d pace, significantly increasing the risk of warfare in orbit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of different categories of space weapons that [China has] created and\u2009\u2026\u2009the speed with which they\u2019re doing it is very threatening,\u201d said General Chance Saltzman, head of space operations at the US military\u2019s recently created force tasked with protecting American interests in space.<\/p>\n
Saltzman spoke during a tour of Europe to raise awareness about the potential for conflict in space with powers including China and Russia and the need to cooperate with European allies to improve deterrence capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons you have a space force in the US now is in recognition of the last 20 years, [Russia and China] have developed and demonstrated the ability to conduct war fighting in space,\u201d he said. The Space Force was established in 2019 by then-president Donald Trump, who is vying for re-election next week.<\/p>\n
The US military has long been using space-based assets for communications and missile targeting. For China, space has become an increasingly crucial domain in its quest to put one of the US military\u2019s traditional strengths at risk.<\/p>\n
Beijing has dismissed US claims its increasingly sophisticated space program poses any danger to other countries. The foreign ministry accused Washington this year of \u201crepeatedly hyping up China\u201d as a threat as \u201can excuse for the US to expand its forces in outer space and maintain military hegemony.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of large-scale military reforms that started in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping combined space, information, and cyberwarfare operations under the Strategic Support Force, a new arm of the People\u2019s Liberation Army.<\/p>\n
In April, Xi launched another restructuring that, in effect, dissolved the SSF and put its functions under direct control of the military leadership in a sign that he seeks to enhance space, cyber, and information operations.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
Both Russia and China have tested satellites with capabilities that include grappling hooks to pull other satellites out of orbit and \u201ckinetic kill vehicles\u201d that can target satellites and long-range ballistic missiles in space.<\/p>\n
In May, a senior US defense department official told a House Armed Services Committee hearing that Russia was developing an \u201cindiscriminate\u201d nuclear weapon designed to be sent into space, while in September, China made a third secretive test of an unmanned space plane that could be used to disrupt satellites.<\/p>\n
The US is far ahead of its European allies in developing military space capabilities, but it wanted to \u201clay the foundations\u201d for the continent\u2019s space forces, Saltzman said. Last year UK Air Marshal Paul Godfrey was appointed to oversee allied partnerships with NATO with the US Space Force\u2014one of the first times that a high-ranking allied pilot had joined the US military.<\/p>\n
But Saltzman warned against a rush to build up space forces across the continent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is resource-intensive to separate out and stand up a new service. Even\u2009\u2026\u2009in America where we think we have more resources, we underestimated what it was going to take,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The US Space Force, which monitors more than 46,000 objects in orbit, has about 10,000 personnel but is the smallest department of the US military. Its officers are known as \u201cguardians.\u201d<\/p>\n
The costs of building up space defense capabilities mean the US is heavily reliant on private companies, raising concerns about the power of billionaires in a sector where regulation remains minimal.<\/p>\n
SpaceX, led by prominent Trump backer Elon Musk, is increasingly working with US military and intelligence through its Starshield arm, which is developing low Earth orbit satellites that track missiles and support intelligence gathering.<\/p>\n
This month, SpaceX was awarded a $734 million contract to provide space launch services for US defense and intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n
Despite concerns about Musk\u2019s erratic behavior and reports that the billionaire has had regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saltzman said he had no concerns about US government collaboration with SpaceX.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very comfortable that they\u2019ll execute those [contracts] exactly the way they\u2019re designed. All of the dealings I\u2019ve had with SpaceX have been very professional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Kathrin Hille in Taipei.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a9 2024 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The chief of the US Space Force has warned that China is putting military capabilities into space at a \u201cmind-boggling\u201d pace, significantly increasing the risk of warfare in orbit. \u201cThe number of different categories of space weapons that [China has] created and\u2009\u2026\u2009the speed with which they\u2019re doing it is very threatening,\u201d said General Chance Saltzman, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[135,9605,2118],"class_list":["post-44647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-syndication","tag-us-space-force"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}