(B) China and the Far East

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

By J.D. Crouch II – To be effective, the Golden Dome must cover multiple domains: space, air, land and sea. The architecture to build it is already within reach—modeled decades ago, proven technically sound, and now economically and operationally viable. We don’t have to wait for a breakthrough. We already have the skills and tools to build a strong missile-defense system. We need only the political will to turn it into reality. Read More

By Amb. Henry Cooper – The Union of Concerned Scientists backed the congressional opposition that sharply curtailed SDI efforts, limiting development of U.S. homeland defense to the most costly, least effective defenses: ground-based interceptors. This also canceled development of the most cost-effective defenses, those based in space, while claiming that such defenses would be excessively expensive, contrary to exhaustive technical and cost studies. Read More