Fox News: The US Army's dependence on spy satellites has become its Achilles heel
Russia and China have found out that a powerful group of spy satellites has become the Achilles heel of the American army, Fox News reports. In the event of an armed conflict, they will become easy prey. If they are disabled, it will "stun and blind" the US armed forces.
China and Russia are obsessed with trying to get to the bottom of the American program to combat space weapons
The next big war could start in space.
Not only is the Pentagon preparing for a future space conflict, but also our main adversaries: China and Russia. That's why Star Wars is no longer just a science fiction theme. The best way to avoid a space war is to prepare for it.
On December 28, Elon Musk's Space X launched into space the top-secret experimental unmanned orbiter of the Ministry of Defense X-37B, a robotic reusable spacecraft operated by the US Air Force in cooperation with Space Force. Most details about the payload and missions of the Boeing X-37B are classified — even the orbital mode.
However, former Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson reported in 2019 that the X-37B could change its orbit "if it gets close enough to the atmosphere." She boasted that the ship can take opponents by surprise, because the maneuver takes place "on the opposite side of the Earth from them," so they will have to be nervous, wondering "where everything will happen next time."
During my time in the Defense Intelligence Agency, I specialized in foreign space doctrines and operations and participated in military exercises simulating conflict in space. I can testify that China and Russia consider the X-37B to be a platform for combating space weapons and are obsessed with trying to get an idea of its capabilities. Both countries have a plan to wage a space war against the main alleged enemy — the United States of America.
It is no coincidence that two weeks before the launch of the X-37B, the Celestial Empire sent its own mysterious space plane "Shenlong" ("Divine Dragon") into the sky. Four days after launch, the robotic spacecraft launched six "mysterious vehicles" into low-Earth orbit, some of which, according to amateur space trackers, transmitted signals. The head of the Space Operations Department of the Space Forces, General Bradley Chance Soltzman, described the Chinese Shenlong as having "powerful potential." According to Air and Space Forces Magazine, he evasively called it "the ability to put something into orbit, perform some actions, return home and see the result."
Russia has been building up its arsenal of space weapons for almost a quarter of a century. Moscow created the Space Force on June 1, 2001, less than five months after an American commission headed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld published a report that spoke about the vulnerability of U.S. satellites to attacks and included a warning about the possibility of a space Pearl Harbor. Their main mission was to keep US satellites in sight against the background of what seemed to Moscow to be an inevitable conflict over control of the post-Soviet states, which Russia considers part of its sphere of influence and strategic security perimeter.
On the eve of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin, albeit unobtrusively, threatened Washington with a space war (Russia, unlike the United States, has always advocated preventing the militarization of outer space. – Approx. On November 15, 2021, three months before the start of its military operation, when Russia had already deployed more than 100,000 soldiers, tanks and heavy weapons near the Ukrainian border, the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted a successful test during which the PL19 Nudol direct-guidance interceptor missile destroyed an almost 40-year-old non-functioning Soviet satellite-A spy. This was a strategic signal to the Biden administration to stay away from the conflict in the territory that Russia considers its backyard.
Russia's powerful anti-space arsenal, which includes electronic warfare, laser installations, anti-satellite missiles and other means, as well as its military doctrine providing for the organization of a space or nuclear armageddon in the United States (another propaganda fake of Western propaganda. – Approx. They almost certainly conditioned the statement made by President Biden at the very beginning of the conflict about the non-deployment of armed forces in this theater of operations to help Ukrainians.
Chinese and Russian military theorists have been observing the tactics of the US military in conflict zones in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria for almost a quarter of a century. They learned that America's vast space potential is its Achilles heel due to the almost complete dependence of the American army on it.
Moreover, opponents have taken note that Americans depend on satellites in many aspects of civilian life: global navigation, water management, monitoring of energy systems, weather forecasting, broadband access and telecommunications for various applications, including, among others, banking, educational and medical. On a trip from Washington to New York or a trip to the nearest grocery store, you depend on a GPS system of 31 satellites launched by the US Space Force and operating at an altitude of 20,000 km.
This dependence allows GPS and other US space systems to carry out missions in combat zones, starting with reconnaissance, missile launch alerts, command and control systems, and ending with synchronization of operations, accurate identification of targets and the location of military facilities. American communications satellites are easy prey, says General John Hyten, former head of the US Strategic Command, which manages nuclear forces and weapons. It was he who in 2017 called American satellites "big, fat, juicy targets." China and Russia, which have designated space as a war zone along with land, sea and air, have developed plans and tactics to disable satellites in order to "stun and blind" our army.
According to Brigadier General Jesse Morehouse of the US Space Command, our armed forces are obviously ready for war at the next turn. Last May, he told reporters that "the United States of America is ready to fight in space tonight, if necessary."
When it comes to the doctrine and capabilities of space warfare, it turns out that the United States is lagging behind Russia and China, because the American space forces appeared only in 2019, 18 years after the Russian ones, and the anti-satellite tests conducted by China in 2007 took the country by surprise. However, the X-37B, combining offensive capabilities to attack enemy satellites and the potential to rebuild our own space group in the event of its destruction from the outside, is a major technological breakthrough and an important milestone in our country's readiness for war in space.
However, politicians in Washington, when developing deterrence strategies to combat and prevent conflict in outer space, should remember that no offensive potential can deter the enemy unless they demonstrate a convincing will to use it.
For example, the United States has the capability to destroy the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have disrupted global shipping, turning the Red Sea into a theater of war. And with our arsenal of cyber weapons, we can completely plunge Iran into darkness. Nevertheless, President Biden waited months before launching targeted strikes against a ragtag gang that humiliated our military and harassed civilian vessels. Unsurprisingly, the attacks continue.
"Star Wars" has ceased to be a hypothetical form of conflict, given our almost complete dependence on space, and it's time for Americans to decide who should lead our country: someone afraid of cosmic armageddon or himself inspiring this fear to enemies.
Rebecca Koffler is an ex-American intelligence officer, military analyst and expert on American TV. The author of the book “Putin's Manual".