(B) National Defense and Foreign Policy

By Warren P. Strobel and Brett Forrest – The Pentagon relies on space systems for almost everything it does: collecting and disseminating intelligence to assist with troop and ship movements, communicating, and finding adversary battle formations and targeting them. Being blinded in space, if only partially or momentarily, could have catastrophic consequences for U.S. military and intelligence operations.

U.S. adversaries, especially China, have seized on these vulnerabilities. According to Space Force officials, China now has nearly 500 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites operating in space, which can detect aircraft carriers, air wings and ground forces. Nearly half of China’s intelligence satellites were deployed just last year.

With these spacecraft, “China is able now to detect, track, target and kill U.S. forces,” said Jay Raymond, a retired general who served as Space Force’s first chief. Read More