CHINA has been caught practicing satellite maneuvers that resemble aerial combat, according to a US Space Force General.
At the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington on Tuesday, vice chief of space operations General Michael Guetlein said the US was developing capabilities for off-planet warfare.
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He added that Space Force needed to maintain “space superiority” over its rivals, like China and Russia.
Space Force, a branch of the Department of the Air Force, was established in 2019 in response to Russian and Chinese military space developments.
China recently launched a refueling station into geostationary orbit – roughly 35,786km away from Earth – designed to service its growing fleet of satellites.
But commercial satellite owners spotted Chinese kit conducting offensive drills and passed the tip onto Space Force.
“We observed five objects in space moving in and out and around each other in synchrony and in control,” said Guetlein.
“That’s what we call dogfighting in space – they are practicing tactics, techniques and procedures to do in-orbit space operations from one satellite to another.”
Guetlein did not immediately identify China at the conference.
Instead, a Space Force spokesperson later confirmed that he was referencing Chinese activities.
“China conducted a series of proximity operations in 2024 involving three Shiyan-24C experimental satellites and two Chinese experimental space objects, the Shijian-6 05A/B,” the spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
“These maneuvers were observed in low earth orbit.”
Guetlein also warned of a huge fleet of signal jammers that China has launched into space.
These have been increasingly used to ‘dazzle’ and jam orbital reconnaissance and surveillance techniques.
“Unfortunately, our current adversaries are willing to go against international norms of behavior, go against that gentleman’s agreement, and they’re willing to do it in very unsafe and unprofessional manners,” said Guetlein.
“The new norms of behavior in space, unfortunately, within the past three years: jamming, spoofing, dazzling … cyber hacks are happening all around us on a day-to-day basis.”
The US has been preparing for the possibilities of space warfare with adversaries for years.
We need a credible fighting force, and we need the capability to deter and, if necessary, defeat aggression. That is the inflection point that you’re seeing today
General Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations at Space Force
In May last year, the US accused Russia of launching a counter space weapon capable of attacking satellites into low Earth orbit.
It claims Moscow has done this twice before and was especially concerned by tests of Russia’s anti-satellite missile and China’s Fractional Orbital Bombardment System in 2021.
Guetlein said the US needed to improve its tactics and technology to combat potential space warfare.
“We need a credible fighting force, and we need the capability to deter and, if necessary, defeat aggression. That is the inflection point that you’re seeing today,” he said.
Guetlein added: “What keeps me up at night is the pace at which the adversary threat is changing every single day.”
Officials remain wary of the threat of nuclear weapons being deployed from space.
Russia last year vetoed a UN resolution calling for a ban on the development of space nukes, in line with the Outer Space Treaty.
“We have heard President Putin say publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space,” then-US ambassador to the UN for special political affairs Robert Wood said at the time.
“If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed that resolution.”
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