The US has long played off fears of a Russian or Chinese attack in space, but it’s the Pentagon that has the most extensive space weaponry and has established the US Space Force (USSF) to maintain that superiority as more nations engage in space activities.
The US military’s senior-most uniformed leader warned on Wednesday that the spark of the US’ next major war could be a sneak attack against US space assets - a critical vulnerability for US forces around the globe. The rhetoric has long been used to justify the creation of the Space Force by claiming China and Russia pose such a threat.
“Space as a domain, for example, is critical. There is an argument to be made, and many have made it in various unclassified writings, that a country might try to seek a first move or advantage, for example: to blind the United States. The next Pearl Harbor could happen in space, many people have written,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Brookings Institution during a Wednesday webcast.
“So if you took out, say, a series of satellites that were key to our communications systems, our command and control systems, or our navigation systems - precision, navigation, and timing systems - that could potentially have a devastating effect and could encourage some country to try to do something like an ‘electronic Pearl Harbor,’ with either electronic warfare systems or attack in space,” Milley added.
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