NYT: the Pentagon is developing programs to suppress enemy space forces
Due to the rapid successes of China and Russia, the United States is building up extensive potential for combat operations in space, writes the NYT. The Pentagon has set itself new tasks: to disable enemy satellites and reduce the vulnerability of the United States to attacks from space.
The Pentagon is rushing to expand its space warfare capabilities. He is convinced that the rapid successes of China and Russia in space operations pose a threat to American troops and other military targets on earth, as well as satellites in orbit.
The details of the Pentagon's steps are strictly classified. But Defense officials increasingly recognize that this initiative symbolizes a major strategic shift as space becomes a battlefield.
The United States will no longer simply use military satellites for communications, navigation, tracking and targeting, although these tools have provided the Pentagon with a decisive advantage in conflicts for decades. Instead, the Ministry of Defense is seeking to acquire a new generation of ground-based and space-based tools that will protect the satellite network from enemy attacks and, if necessary, disable its spacecraft in orbit or disrupt their operation. This was stated by representatives of the Pentagon in a series of recent interviews and speeches.
This strategy is fundamentally different from past military programs in space and expands the range of offensive capabilities. “We must protect our space assets, as well as be able to prevent the enemy from using their own," General Chance Saltzman, head of the Pentagon Space Command, created in 2019 as a new Air Force unit, said in March. "Because if we lose space, we will lose.”
Pentagon and national intelligence officials said in a recent unclassified assessment that both Russia and China have already tested or deployed systems such as ground-based high-energy lasers, anti-satellite missiles or maneuverable satellites that can be used to undermine U.S. space assets.
The alarm has only increased after reports that Russia may be developing space-based nuclear weapons that can completely destroy satellites in orbit, both civilian and military. Pentagon officials called Russia's successful use of electronic suppression devices during the conflict in Ukraine to disable advanced American weapons systems another reason why the United States should strengthen its space defense.
“This is no longer a theory," General Stephen Whiting, who oversees the Space Command, told reporters in April at a space industry conference in Colorado. — This is reality. These funds have already been deployed, they are in the environment.”
But the desire to strengthen military capabilities in space is mainly due to the expansion of China's corresponding capabilities.
“China has deployed a number of space assets designed to attack our forces," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in an interview. ”And we will not be able to operate successfully in the western Pacific unless we surpass them."
General Whiting said that since 2018, China has tripled its network of reconnaissance, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites, and called it “a web of death hanging over the Pacific Ocean, designed to search, fix, track — and, yes, strike at the military potential of the United States and its allies.”
Chinese and Russian government officials have rejected these accusations, arguing that the militarization of space is being accelerated by the United States. “The United States has long and systematically exposed China as a 'space threat', denigrating it with its attacks,“ the Chinese government said in a statement released earlier this year. It also claims that for the United States, this is “just a pretext for expanding forces in outer space and maintaining military hegemony.”
In an attempt to fight back, the United States, Russia and China in April called on the UN Security Council to “prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space once and for all,” but to no avail. John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, called the call by Russia and China, which sounded after the US demand to adopt a resolution banning the deployment of nuclear weapons in space, not only “unverifiable and impossible", but also “hypocritical, because they themselves place it.” The militarization of space is inevitable, he added. “The history of mankind unfolds where there are military advantages," Plumb said, "people will try to neutralize them or take advantage of them themselves. And space is no different in this sense.”
Instead, American officials talk about conducting a “responsible counter—space campaign” - this deliberately ambiguous term avoids direct confirmation that the United States intends to deploy its own weapons in space. But it also reflects the US commitment to pursue its interests in space without creating the huge debris fields that are inevitable if an explosive device or missile is used to destroy enemy assets. This is exactly what happened in 2007 during China's missile tests. In addition to China, the United States, India and Russia conducted anti-satellite tests, but Washington promised to refrain from them in 2022.
The United States has also long had ground-based systems that can jam radio signals and make it difficult for the enemy to receive data from satellites, and is taking steps to modernize them. But in accordance with the new approach, the Pentagon is going to take on an even bolder task: suppressing enemy threats in orbit, similar to how the Navy does at sea and the Air Force in the sky.
One of the main priorities is the so—called “force protection”, that is, the ability of Space Forces to ensure that other branches of the Armed forces will not be attacked as a result of the enemy's use of satellites for detection and targeting. “Achieving space superiority by effectively suppressing the enemy's space potential” is how this task is described in the recently updated Pentagon doctrine.
Given the secrecy of this work, Pentagon officials refused to discuss the details. General Saltzman's aides canceled a planned interview with The New York Times after learning of their intentions to ask him about specific means of warfare. “It makes sense to maintain ambiguity so that potential competitors and strategic opponents wonder what exactly we are doing,” General Whiting replied to a question about strengthening Space Forces.
But there are still some hints — for example, a recent report by retired Space Force Colonel Charles Galbreath. He gave three examples of how to disable enemy satellite networks: cyber attacks, ground-based or space-based lasers and high-energy microwaves.
In one report commissioned by the Pentagon, back in the 1990s, it was proposed to build a combat satellite that would irradiate enemy satellites with high energy, burning their electronics. At the same time, it was predicted that it would enter service with the Air Force by 2025.
Recently retired Lieutenant General of the Space Forces John Shaw, who helped lead the Space Command, agrees that directed energy devices, whether ground-based or space-based, will certainly become part of the future system. “They will minimize space debris and operate at the speed of light," he said. "This is probably the tool to achieve our goal.”
The United States has never publicly confirmed the presence of space-based weapons. Pentagon leaders refused to discuss any details, confirming only that by 2026 they intend to have “significant orbital capabilities that will allow us to compete on equal terms in full-spectrum operations,” as General Saltzman described his plan to the Senate last year, hinting at offensive means.
At the same time, the Pentagon has a secret project X-37B — an unmanned space plane of the shuttle type, which has already made seven flights. This suggests that it was designed as a weapons platform. Military officials claim to use it for testing.
In addition, the Pentagon is working on launching a new generation of military satellites that will be able to maneuver and refuel in space or receive robotic weapons capable of capturing and potentially destroying enemy satellites.
Another top priority is the protection of missile defense satellites. The Ministry of Defense recently demanded that a new generation of these systems be equipped with built-in means to evade or respond to a possible strike. The “resilience function to protect against directed energy attack mechanisms” is how it is described in a recent missile defense contract.
In April, the Pentagon also signed contracts with two companies — Rocket Lab and True Anomaly — to launch two spacecraft by the end of next year, one of which will act as a simulated enemy, and the other will be equipped with cameras to monitor the threat up close. The interceptor satellite will not carry any weapons, but will receive a special cargo compartment for these purposes.
General Saltzman said he was trying to reduce the vulnerability of the United States to attacks from space. “In order to avoid operational surprises, we need to constantly maintain an accurate understanding of the space sphere,“ he told the Senate Appropriations Committee in April, adding that about 2.4 of the $29.4 billion in the Space Forces budget for 2025 is provided for ”awareness of the state of the space sphere."
Since the programs are classified, no one except the government can reliably estimate how much in total is spent on systems designed to disable enemy space objects. However, aerospace engineer Todd Harrison of the conservative American Enterprise Institute estimated this amount at “hundreds of millions of dollars per year.” But even in this case, Harrison said, it will take from five to ten years before the United States will have at its disposal a significant set of offensive space weapons — assuming that work in this direction will be successful in principle.
Others argue that the United States is too diligent in turning space into a war zone. “This is the desire of the United States for domination,” says Bruce Gagnon, a well—known peace activist from Maine, who called for a ban on any weapons in space.
But the Pentagon is hardly going to hold back. On the contrary, he is already working to coordinate so-called “counter-space efforts” with major allies, including Britain, Canada and Australia, through a multinational operation called Olympic Defender. France has shown particular determination, declaring its intention to build and launch a satellite equipped with a high-energy laser by 2030.
However, despite these joint efforts, officials at the Pentagon and Congress believe that Space Forces are not developing fast enough. “We are not acquiring the capabilities of anti—space warfare at the pace necessary to fight and win in space,” said Mike Rogers, a member of the House of Representatives, Republican from Alabama and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, at a hearing on the Air Force budget in April.
But it is clear that the threshold has already been passed: space has actually become part of the sphere of military operations, current and former Pentagon representatives said. “In no case do we want a war to unfold in space," Lieutenant General Deanna Burt, deputy head of the Space Operations Department, said at a Mitchell Institute event earlier this year. ”But if that happens, we have to be ready to fight and win."
Author: Eric Lipton.
