China has gained and tested array of space weapons

We have a space-weapon 'gap' to fill, according to US officials.
That makes it 'official', a new space race has started!

Will that recent Chinese asat test prove to be another sputnik?
Where fears of a new military vulnerability ignite an
explosion in space related spending?

Only this time our goals will no longer be hidden under
peaceful platitudes of discovery, but be clearly devoted
solely to military ambitions.

Looks like our space program is about to waste another
forty years, damn shame...isn't it?


www.gertzfile.com

China has gained and tested array of space weapons
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 30, 2007

China is developing an "impressive" array of space weapons, including
missiles and jammers, and is moving toward placing nuclear weapons in
space to attack U.S. satellites, the commander of U.S. strategic
forces told the Senate yesterday.
The Chinese military has "undertaken what we would call a very
disciplined and comprehensive continuum of capability against ... our
space capabilities," Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright yesterday told
the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.
Their capabilities go "all the way from temporary and reversible
effects -- [Global Positioning System] jamming, things like that,
[communications] jamming, all the way through direct ascent ASAT," he
said, referring to anti-satellite weapons. "Eventually, they'll
probably be looking at co-orbital" weapons -- missiles that orbit near
a satellite and then explode.
"Then, the one that you really worry about is introducing weapons
of mass destruction into space on a missile," he said.
The testimony provided the first details from the Bush
administration about China's space-weapons program.
Subcommittee Chairman Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, said that
China is expected to have enough ASAT weapons by 2010 to "basically
knock out most of our satellites in low-earth orbit."
Gen. Cartwright said countering that threat will require the
military to develop "prompt global strike" weapons -- missiles and
bombers that can hit targets around the world very rapidly.
China's across-the-board program of ground-based jamming and
ground-launched missiles shows the arms program is sophisticated in
terms of science and technology, he said. China's Jan. 11 ASAT test,
when a missile destroyed a weather satellite in orbit, was not a
surprise and was Beijing's third attempt to destroy an orbiting
satellite with a missile.
"What was for us impressive was that in three attempts, they made
significant changes each time and were able to, in three attempts,
come to a successful intercept -- on their third attempt," he said.
Additionally, China already has deployed weapons at the lower end
of the anti-satellite scale -- weapons that jam or disrupt
satellites.
In his testimony, Gen. Cartwright questioned whether the Chinese
space-arms program should lead the United States to develop similar
weapons.
"We have the technical capability," he said. "My belief right now
is knowing what we believe we know about this threat after the
demonstrations that it is premature to start thinking about an arms
race in space. ...We do not have to have a space response to that
threat."
However, the four-star general said it would be "prudent" to
improve the U.S. space-defense posture and improve surveillance and
intelligence on space threats. Also, U.S. national security satellites
should be hardened with "passive-type defenses," such as lens shutters
or turn-off systems, he said.
Gen. Cartwright's comments yesterday contrast with his remarks in
October, when he said reports China had fired a laser at a U.S.
satellite in an apparent ASAT test were "uncertain." Gen. Cartwright,
who is in charge of U.S. nuclear-warfighting forces, also suggested
the United States might choose to use nuclear missiles to stop a
country such as China from using missiles fired from hard-to-reach
interior bases to destroy U.S. satellites.
"If there are many targets that are out of the reach of our
bombers, conventional forces ... in large countries, the question
would be, as an example, how many satellites would we be willing to
lose before we went to a nuclear alternative, because the only thing
we have to reach those targets is nuclear," he said.