U.S. Ready to Defend Satellites, Analysts Say

The U.S. response to China’s antisatellite test earlier this year has been surprisingly quiet, according to some analysts who have concluded that Washington had taken measures to protect its space-based military systems even before the test, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday (see GSN, March 9).

China on Jan. 11 destroyed one of its own weather satellites in orbit using a modified ballistic missile.  U.S. defense officials have given only a muted response, according to some experts.

The relative quiet “is hard for me to understand except to conclude they already felt they had already dealt with this problem some time ago,” said John Pike, head of GlobalSecurity.org.

Pike said a U.S. stealth satellite program was begun about seven years ago to protect space-based equipment.

Such defensive measures enjoy widespread support at the Defense Department, but more controversial countermeasures, such as using missile defense technologies to protect satellites, are also under discussion, said another analyst.

Agreement begins to fray “when you start talking about issues like, ‘Well do we now need space-based missile defense so we can shoot down China’s ASAT on the pad? … Do we need shoot-back systems in space?’” said Theresa Hitchens of the Center for Defense Information (Jim Mannion, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, March 10).

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