China and U.S. at War in Space – Iran to join the battle

According to the esteemed Jane’s Defense, China has been firing beam weapons on U.S. early warning satellites in order to prevent the U.S. from detecting a first strike or the initial stages of an attack.

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. — Jane’s Defense Weekly

The leak of this incident has been followed by increasing statements by the Defense Department on this Chinese anti satellite threat, followed by the overt statement on December 14 that the U.S. is basically declaring a war in space now that we have been overtly attacked. Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, declared:

The United States will “oppose others who wish to use their military capabilities to impede or deny our access to and use of space,” he said. “We will seek the best capabilities to protect our space assets by active or passive means.” — Washington Times

Besides China Iran also seeks to join this battle against the U.S. by joining with China. Iran has used the facade of a space program to develop long range ballistic missile, and it has the capability to develop anti-satellite weapons as well. Targets could also be Israel’s extensive network of early warning and communication satellites.

This ability to take out U.S. and Israel’s command and communication network is the goal, and the first signs of an all out war may be the confusion as early warning and communication satellites go down. The space part of this world war has begun at a low level, but escalation is inevitable.