Two top intelligence officials from both the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command said Tuesday that China’s innovation in space – and specifically with satellites – over the last decade is one of the nation’s top threats to space capabilities.
“In just what’s 11 or 12 years, the People’s Liberation Army has gone from a cold start to becoming the second most powerful nation in space – that’s rather dramatic,” Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, the deputy chief of space operations for intelligence at the U.S. Space Force, said during a Oct. 10 CSIS event.
The major general explained that in 2012, China only had 41 satellites in orbit. Today, the country has more than 800.
“What can you do from outer space? You can sense the globe,” Gagnon explained. “You can make weapons engage further with greater precision. You can show people where they are, you can show weapons where to go. All of those things – which used to be a uniquely American and allied capability – are now shared by what could be our potential competitor.”
While the United States still dominates space with the most satellites in orbit, Gagnon said that last year, 90 percent of the technology installed up there was intended to provide internet connectivity or communications to the world.
During that same time period, China launched 200 satellites, but 105 of them were for remote sensing capabilities from outer space, Gagnon said.
“As we are connecting the world for the free access of information, they’re using outer space to spy on the world,” Gagnon said. “Different organizing principle and purpose, because what they’re putting in outer space is intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites. So, two very different things.”
Director of Intelligence at the U.S. Space Command, Brig. Gen. Brian Sidari, agreed with his Space Force counterpart, noting that China’s advancement to “close the technology gap with the United States and our allies” in outer space is “concerning.”
“You also see them creating part of a market to help that innovation to go through and so I call it the marketization of space but also the commoditization of space,” Sidari said.
