U.S. satellites increasingly vulnerable to China’s ground-based lasers
Of the world’s 50 satellite laser ranging stations, five fixed stations are in Shanghai, Changchun, Beijing, Wuhan and Kuming. The Defense Intelligence Agency warned in January 2019 that China likely will field in 2020 a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit space-based sensors. By the mid-to-late 2020s it may field higher power systems that could damage…
Read More from U.S. satellites increasingly vulnerable to China’s ground-based lasers ›Priority-one for space policy should be to protect U.S. satellites
Space self-defense and partnership strategies are hardly getting the attention they deserve. Should dominance be our immediate space security priority? The short answer is no. Why? Doing so jeopardizes achieving the more urgent task of protecting our critical satellites. Dominance may be desirable but, for now, the United States must tackle the weightier task of…
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