Syed Abdul Fayum

BREAKING: U.S. intelligence warns China and Russia are developing weapons capable of destroying American satellites, threatening GPS and critical military communications. Key details from the DIA report and related U.S. assessments • China: It has operational ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles capable of destroying satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO); it conducted a destructive test in 2007 that generated long-lasting debris. It operates multiple ground-based laser (directed-energy) systems that can disrupt, degrade, or damage LEO satellites. By the late 2020s, it may field space-based directed-energy weapons and higher-powered ground systems able to threaten satellites in higher orbits. It also has electronic warfare/jamming systems (ground-based and on-orbit) that target communications, radar, and GPS signals, plus dual-use satellites capable of close approaches, inspection, or other operations against other spacecraft. Chinese doctrine views space as a warfighting domain and sees counterspace attacks as a way to degrade an adversary’s architecture, potentially as a prelude to conflict. • Russia: It is expanding kinetic ASAT capabilities (including systems like the air-launched Burevestnik from a modified MiG-31), co-orbital systems that can maneuver near other satellites and have tested projectiles, and extensive electronic warfare/jamming (used operationally, including against GPS and commercial systems like those supporting Ukraine). The DIA states Russia is developing a satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon; a high-altitude nuclear detonation or nuclear-armed satellite could rapidly degrade or destroy large numbers of satellites via electromagnetic effects and radiation, affecting military and civilian systems worldwide (in violation of the Outer Space Treaty’s ban on nuclear weapons in orbit). Russia views U.S. reliance on satellites for precision strike and power projection as a key vulnerability.