China, Russia deploying space weapons to attack U.S. satellites, warns Space Force chief

China’s military has deployed 347 satellites, including 35 launched in the past six months, to target U.S. forces in a future conflict, the commander of the Space Force told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Space Force Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said Russia is also testing and deploying orbital anti-satellite weapons, extensive cyber capabilities and land-based anti-satellite missiles, electronic jammers and lasers.

China’s more advanced space warfare weapons pose “the most immediate threat” to attacks in space, while less-capable Russian space assets also pose “an acute threat” of attacks or disruptions on U.S. satellites.

Both “are intent on targeting perceived U.S. vulnerabilities and eliminating American advantage in the space domain,” the four-star general told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces hearing Tuesday. “Both expect space to be key to future warfare by enabling long-range precision strikes. Both seek information superiority through disabling an adversary’s space communication and navigation systems.”

Gen. Saltzman said China has been aggressively building space weapons and technology to attack space systems and ground components. Beijing is aiming to become the world’s leading space power by 2045 as part of what Chinese officials have called a “space dream,” deploying lasers that can attack satellite sensors and electronic warfare jammers that can disable GPS satellites and communications satellites.

The Chinese military also has several types of ground-launched missiles capable of hitting orbiting satellites.

A third space weapon of the Chinese is orbiting satellites that can grab and crush vulnerable craft from hostile nations.

A major concern is China’s development of anti-satellite weapons to attack the highest-orbiting satellites that move with the rotation of the Earth. Gen. Saltzman said satellites in geosynchronous orbit, 22,236 miles in altitude, can each cover one-third of the earth with sensors seeking to gather photo or electronic information.

To address the threat of an attack on geostationary satellites, the Space Force is shifting to deploying large numbers of satellites hardened against attack at low-Earth orbit, including “the capacity to find, fix and track” hypersonic missiles, Gen. Saltzman said.

Protecting satellites from orbiting killer robots that can grapple satellites is more complicated.

“With regards to grappling satellites and pulling them out of orbit, [that is] much tougher to deal with when you have less-than-maneuverable, older legacy satellites,” Gen. Saltzman said.

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