WASHINGTON – China’s space weapons include missiles and killer satellites, but Beijing’s most worrying arms are lasers and electronic jammers capable of destroying or disrupting Global Positioning System navigation satellites used by the U.S. military, the general in charge of space says. The Washington Times reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
8 June 2021 -- U.S. Air Force Gen. John W. Raymond, chief of space operations for the Pentagon’s new Space Force, and other Air Force officials have told Congress that the U.S. military needs to move quickly to counter increasingly aggressive Chinese and Russian moves in space that involve laser weapons and electronic jammers.
Both are building weapons designed to engage in “robust jamming of GPS and communications satellites,” as well as “directed-energy systems that can blind, disrupt or damage our satellites,” Raymond testified to the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
When asked of Pentagon and intelligence community reports that China is deploying ground-based lasers that can destroy GPS satellites and other spacecraft circling the globe in low-Earth orbit, the general told lawmakers the “threat is real today and concerning.”
Related: Top technology challenges this decade for the warfighter
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
