"Nobody could have anticipated China could attack our satellites..."

[Ian David]

Flash-forward to sometime later in the Bush administration...
"Nobody could have anticipated China had the capability of attacking our satellites..."

US claims that China has used lasers to attack satellites

China has used high-energy lasers to interfere with US satellites, according to a US Army space-warfare specialist. Tests have been reported previously but it is now confirmed that the laser attacks were at least partially effective.

Command Sergeant Major David Lady of the Joint Functional Combat Command for Integrated Missile Defense, said at the Strategic Space & Defense conference in Omaha on 12 October that the attacks were detected after US satellite operators - most likely users of the National Reconnaissance Office's secret imaging satellites - observed that the satellites occasionally failed to perform over China.

"There had been times when we wondered at the sudden decline in effectiveness as the satellites passed over China," CSM Lady said. Sensors at the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein atoll in the South Pacific were tasked with tracking the satellites and observing any unusual phenomena. "We sensed the projection of beams against the spacecraft and could identify the streams of photons," CSM Lady said.

The Kwajalein data confirmed that the Chinese appeared to have "some level of confidence" in their laser countermeasures system, according to CSM Lady.

Customers with a paid subscription to Jane’s Defence Weekly can access the full article here
http://www.janes.com/regional_news/americas/news/jdw/jdw061016_1_n.shtml


See also:

Is China Disrupting U.S. Satellites?
InsideDefense.com NewsStand | Elaine M. Grossman | October 13, 2006

Gen. James Cartwright, the top U.S. military officer in charge of operations in space, says the United States has not seen clear indications that China has intentionally disrupted American satellite capabilities.

<snip>

“Your to someone actually with intent interfering out there,” Cartwright said during the Sept. 21 Pentagon interview. “And we really haven't seen that.”

The Marine Corps general declined to address details about the capabilities or actions of specific nations.

<snip>

In May, the Pentagon sent a report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities that offered little detail about anti-satellite efforts. But it noted, “At least one of the satellite attack systems appears to be a ground-based laser designed to damage or blind imaging satellites.”

Defense News, a trade newspaper, last week cited unnamed U.S. officials contending China has actually used lasers on several occasions over the past few years to test an ability to blind U.S. satellites.

“China not only has the capability, but has exercised it,” the publication reported Sept. 25.


More:
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,116694,00.html

[Monkeyman]

1. Don;t have much faith in Military.com pretty right wing

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. remind me. whose airspace is it that we are crossing?

and why would we be surprised if they got upset?

[htuttle]

3. Laser shot on the lens of an orbiting satellite from the surface?

"Impressive", as Quake 3 used to say...

[DireStrike]

4. Not really, terrorists can blind pilots by hand with them!

Remember when they... uh... oh right. Never mind.

[Shipwack]

5. Immpressive, but not out of the question

The satellite's orbit is known, the laser beam hits (practically) instantaeously, as opposed to the "Star Wars" anti missile defense missiles that barely work when given a helpful hand...

The impressive bit to me is the amount of power of the laser, unless the optics and other sensors on the satellite are -real- fragile... which could be the case.

[Ian David]

6. The secret is two billion chinese guys holding laser pointers

Why do you think all those "Made In China" laser pointers are now available at the dollar store?

Then again, an hour after being blinded by a Chinese laser, you feel like being blinded again.

[catmandu57]

8. SDI was what I was thinking about

We're throwing money at a missile system when the Chinese can swat them out of the sky with lasers.

[Shipwack]

9. Oh,that's totally different, then... an apples and oranges comparison

A satellites sensor systems are a whole lot more fragile than a nuclear warhead. I've worked with both in the Navy.

The "B" in ICBM stands for "ballistic". That means that there's no in-flight aim corrections, unlike, say, a Tomahawk missile. It's the same principal of lobbing a basketball through a hoop, or firing an artillery shell: You point in a specific direction, at a certain angle, decide how much force to use, and you'll know -exactly- where the projectile will go. Every single time. This is simple Newtonian physics. So there are no sensors on the warhead that you have to worry about getting destroyed.

Well, I simplified it slightly... there are other factors that are taken into account, most of which I probably can't discuss in forum, but in the over 5o years of launching missiles from submarines, we have shown that we can get the warhead into the ball park (figuratively speaking; I can neither confirm or deny the exact size of the "Circular Area of Probability" (which isn't the technical phrase either, but it gets the point across).

Upshot of it is, the war head is a big shielded rock hurtling down, and all the "laser pointers" in the world are not going to make a difference (short of a hypotheical Giga-watt or larger laser that could vaporise it).

Now, whether that money could be better spent than on a huge nuclear arsenal, that's a whole 'nother issue... :) But the Chinese being able to destroy them at will is not a concern.

[razors edge]

7. Fits in with this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2407171&mesg_id=2407171

The assassin's mace: China's anti-satellite weapons
Glee and ecstasy soon turn to shock as monitor screens suddenly go blank. Then all communication via satellites goes dead. China has drawn its second "trump card" (the assassin's mace) by activating its maneuverable "parasite" micro-satellites that have unknowingly clung to vital (NORAD) radar and communication satellites and have either jammed, blinded or physically destroyed their hosts.