Are you or have ever been a Sci-Fi fan? I was an enormous
fan in my teens and early adulthood. Today I am more a Sci-Fi dabbler than an
obsessed fan. Here is the reason I share this hobby predilection.
Any future global war will have a military venue that most
people do not imagine in the present unless – you have been or are a Sci-Fi
fan.
I just read a Bill Gertz article in which the phrase “Space
Warfare” is a serious military subject in which current military rivals are
central figures. Science Fiction is a heartbeat away from being Science Fact in
the National Security interests for the United States of America. (Unless
of course Snowflake Obamanites guide our foreign policy into oblivion.)
JRH 3/8/18
*******************
Pentagon Gearing Up for Space Warfare
New policy warns of counterattacks against space
attacks
By Bill Gertz
March 8, 2018 5:00 am
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood / Getty Images
The Pentagon is preparing for war should China, Russia, or
other adversaries attack vital American satellites and other space systems, a
senior Pentagon official told Congress on Wednesday.
John Rood, undersecretary of defense for policy, testified
before a House subcommittee that the Trump administration's new defense policy
calls for conducting military and other operations in response to space
attacks, mainly by China and Russia.
Rood said American space systems are essential for "our
prosperity, security, and way of life."
"And [Defense Department] space capabilities are
critical for effective deterrence, defense, and force projection
capabilities," he told a hearing of the House Armed Services subcommittee
on strategic forces.
"Due to the critical importance of these assets, the
national security strategy states, ‘any harmful interference with or attack
upon critical components of our space architecture that directly affects this
vital U.S. interest will be met with a deliberate response at a time, place,
manner, and domain of our choosing.'"
The statement on space defense was the first clear policy
announcement by a senior U.S. official outlining "declaratory policy"
normally reserved for strategic nuclear weapons use.
The new policy represents a break from the policies of the
Obama administration that sought to promote transparency initiatives and arms
control agreements as a way to limit space weapons or conflict in space.
The policy likely will be opposed by arms control advocates,
and by both China and Russia, which have been promoting agreements limiting
space weapons at the United Nations while secretly building arms for space
conflict.
Rood said the Pentagon has requested $12.5 billion in
funding for the fiscal year 2019 that begins Oct. 1 for building up what he
termed a "more resilient defendable space architecture."
The request is $1.1 billion more than funding for last year
on military space.
Rood, and Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the
Omaha-based Strategic Command, testified on the command's budget request of $24
billion.
Neither elaborated on what space warfare capabilities are
being developed. The Pentagon also has not said how it would deter and defend
satellites from attack.
Space defense so far has involved development of
intelligence capabilities to identify and assess if an incident in space is an
attack, or the result of a malfunction or disruption due to collision with
space debris.
Military space "resilience" also calls for the
Pentagon to rapidly replace or restore satellites after attacks or other
disruptions.
The Pentagon's Defense Science Board, in a report last year,
warned that the vulnerability of U.S. satellites to electronic attack was
"a crisis to be dealt with immediately."
The Joint Staff intelligence directorate warned earlier this year
that China and Russia will have fully developed space attack weapons in place
by 2020 that will threaten all U.S. satellites in low earth orbit—100 miles to
1,200 miles in space.
More than 780 orbiting satellites operated by 43 nations are
currently in low-earth orbit and are vulnerable to electronic or kinetic attacks.
Satellites form the backbone of the U.S. military's ability
to conduct combined arms warfare over long distances. They provide
communications, navigation, intelligence and surveillance, weapons targeting,
and attack warning.
Analysts say anti-satellites attacks knocking out 12 Global
Positioning System satellites, located in medium-earth orbit around 12,550
miles high, would be severely degraded military operations.
U.S. space weapons are likely to match anti-satellite
weaponry developed by both China and Russia. That would include several types
of weapons and capabilities, ranging from advanced missile defense interceptors
modified for space attacks on satellites, cyber warfare capabilities to disrupt
or destroy anti-satellite and space weapons systems both in space and on the
ground, and lasers and electronic jammers.
A defense source said one of the more stealthy
anti-satellite capabilities being considered is a laser weapon capable of
overheating an orbiting satellite that would disrupt or destroy electronic
components.
Small satellites with robotic arms capable of maneuvering
and grabbing or crushing satellites also could be developed. Such satellites
have been tested by China.
The experimental space plane known as the X-37B, that has
been secretly tested on long-duration flights in space, is also said to be a
potential platform for delivering weapons and fighting in space.
Hyten, the Stratcom commander, said in his prepared
statement that the Pentagon and National Reconnaissance Office are implementing
a "space warfighting construct."
"This construct supports the national space policy and
focuses on the forces, operations, and systems needed to prevail in a conflict
that extends into space," he said.
"Space is a warfighting domain just like the air,
ground, maritime, and cyberspace domains," Hyten said.
Currently, a defense and intelligence center called the
National Space Defense Center [Blog Editor: NSDC
info], located at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, runs 24-hour
operations for rapid detection, warning, and defense from space attacks.
War games involving space war also are held regularly with
U.S. military forces and allies, including Asian and European allies.
Hyten also revealed that U.S. adversaries will deploy
hypersonic strike vehicles—that can travel at more than 7,000 miles per hour—in
the next few years.
China has conducted at least seven tests of hypersonic
vehicles and Russia as well has conducted several hypersonic missile tests.
The hypersonic vehicles are designed to defeat missile
defenses.
Hyten urged speeding up U.S. development of hypersonic
strike weapons as well as what he termed conventional prompt strike weapons.
"New long-range, survivable, lethal, and time-sensitive
strike capabilities, such as a hypersonic (conventional prompt strike) weapon,
will allow the U.S. to achieve its military objectives in these
environments," Hyten said. "This new weapon class prevents
adversaries from exploiting time and distance and provides additional response
options below the nuclear threshold."
Rood said U.S. missile defenses currently are configured for
countering missile threats from North Korea and Iran and are not capable of
stopping strategic strikes from China and Russia.
The undersecretary described China and Russia as the
"central challenges" for the Pentagon in an increasingly complex
military threat environment. "Both Russia and China are seeking to reshape
the world order," he said.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), the subcommittee chairman, has
been pressing for creation of a separate space corps within the Air Force.
Defense legislation passed last year calls for a study on
the issue and for recognizing space as a warfighting domain.
"These were the first steps down a long path in the
right direction," Rogers said. "Much remains to be done here to
ensure we're postured to both successfully deter a conflict in space, and if
need be, prevail over any adversary if a conflict extends into space."
Rogers said for space defense, the Air Force has discussed
the idea of shifting from large satellites to many smaller satellites.
"But what I've seen so far in the FY '19 budget isn't convincing me we're
heading in that direction fast enough," he said.
As part of the Pentagon's budget for nuclear modernization,
two modified nuclear weapons are planned.
One is a smaller warhead on submarine-launched ballistic
missiles, to counter Russia's development of a new nuclear cruise missile in
violation of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Force Treaty.
A second smaller nuclear weapon will be a new sea-launched
nuclear cruise missile designed to counter China's large arsenal of medium and
intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
The Pentagon also is bolstering the ground-based
anti-missile interceptor force now located in Alaska and California. Twenty
additional interceptors will be added to the 44 interceptors currently in
place.
The added missiles are designed to counter North Korean and
Iranian long-range missile threats.
Rood said the Pentagon is considering a third anti-missile
interceptor base on the East Coast but has not made a final decision.
The third base will be part of the Pentagon's forthcoming
Missile Defense Review that is nearing completion.
Rood said recent disclosures of new strategic nuclear
capabilities by Russia were known to the Pentagon. The statements were
"not surprising but disappointing," he said.
As for China, Rood warned that China is "developing a
very large strategic offensive nuclear force."
"Both countries are pursuing hypersonic weapons and
other capabilities and their behavior in the cyber realm concerns us," he
said. "All of those things apiece are concerning and why in the national
defense strategy we highlighted those two countries as our primary and central
focus for our national security efforts going forward."
Asked if the U.S. doctrine of mutual assured destruction
used to deter nuclear conflict with China and Russia will endure, Hyten said:
"I don't think we have to worry about that for at least a decade."
U.S. strategic nuclear capabilities will remain strong
enough to keep the doctrine in place, he added.
Hyten said Strategic Command is interested in developing
missile defenses capable of knocking out missiles in the early stages of
flight.
Direct energy and cyber attacks are two possible weapons.
______________________
Bill Gertz is senior editor of the Washington Free Beacon. Prior to
joining the Beacon he was a national security reporter, editor, and columnist
for 27 years at the Washington Times. Bill is the author of seven books, four
of which were national bestsellers. His most recent book was iWar: War and
Peace in the Information Age, a look at information warfare in its many forms
and the enemies that are waging it. Bill has an international reputation.
Vyachaslav Trubnikov, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, once
called him a “tool of the CIA” after he wrote an article exposing Russian
intelligence operations in the Balkans. A senior CIA official once threatened
to have a cruise missile fired at his desk after he wrote a column critical of
the CIA’s analysis of China. And China’s communist government has criticized
him for news reports exposing China’s weapons and missile sales to rogues
states. The state-run Xinhua news agency in 2006 identified Bill as the No. 1
“anti-China expert” in the world. Bill insists he is very much
pro-China—pro-Chinese people and opposed to the communist system. Former
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld once told him: “You are drilling holes in
the Pentagon and sucking out information.” His Twitter handle is @BillGertz.
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