(ORDO NEWS) — China is developing scenarios for “soft” and “hard” destruction of SpaceX satellites. They will be used if the country’s authorities see a threat from Starlink.
Researchers associated with the country’s defense industry are working on the problem. They are exploring ways to disable or even destroy satellites if they ever become a threat to China’s national security.
Destroy the indestructible
The Starlink network is believed to be indestructible. As of the end of April 2022, there were 2,439 satellites in Earth orbit, with a total of at least 12,000 planned to be launched.
They will be located around the entire planet, and even if one country in some incredible way manages to destroy all the devices over its territory, then there will be thousands more.
It will definitely not be possible to quickly neutralize them all, if at all, given their ability to maneuver.
Therefore, Chinese scientists were tasked with finding completely new approaches, developing new weapons, which have not been there before.
Interestingly, the South China Morning Post was the first to write about this . It, in turn, refers to the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Modern Defense Technology, in which the researchers outlined their recommendations.
Two conclusions can be drawn from this:
- First, the country’s authorities are increasingly considering SpaceX’s orbital infrastructure as a threat to national security.
- Secondly, they do not hide the work on new weapons.
According to Chinese researchers, Starlink’s ion thrusters “could provide enough power to go on the offensive and knock Chinese targets out of orbit.” That’s why, they say, China needs to build technology that can intercept the signals from each of these satellites.
Elon Musk is not worried
Earlier we wrote that Elon Musk does not exclude the possibility of an attack on Starlink satellites. Commenting on Insider’s question about possible aggressive actions by Russia, he said: “Hopefully we don’t have to experience this, but I think we can launch satellites faster than they can launch anti-satellite missiles.”
However, it is unlikely that this time we will talk about missiles. According to the source, China is working on several different anti-satellite technologies, including lasers and communication jammers. More accurate data is not yet available.
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