China is making dramatic advances in outer space military technology that the emerging superpower could use in a potential war against allies such as the United States and Australia, a visiting US military leader has warned.
Beijing has developed the world’s largest space force, three times that of the United States, making it a formidable opponent in a new front of military competition, said Gregory Gagnon, commander of the US Space Force’s combat forces.
“I will tell you that the United States and the United States military are the most effective space force in the world, but the acceleration of the Chinese space program is alarming,” Lt. Gen. Gagnon told reporters in Canberra.
“They’re not going out slow, they’re going out like a world-class sprinter, and they’re taking advantage.”
When Xi Jinping consolidated power in 2013, China had about 70 satellites in space, which has grown to 1,400 today, Gagnon said.
Gagnon, who is visiting Australia to meet his military counterparts, said the world had reached a new “dynamic juncture” in the history of warfare where the air was no longer the high ground – space was the high ground.
He warned that a “profound shift in military dynamics” was underway and could allow China to gain a decisive military advantage over its adversaries and change the rules of the game in space.
“They have gradually gained leverage with security and military forces in the South China Sea. I would not want them to gain that leverage from space,” he said.
He continued: “I try to remind people that space is a war-fighting domain today not because we want it to be, but because it is. [People’s Liberation Army] made it so.
“They have developed weapons to attack us in space. They have practiced using these weapons to attack us in space.”
Gagnon added that while Russia is not the space superpower it was during the Cold War, it is still a major player and likes to keep its satellites close to US satellites.
“The war will extend to space if it’s a war against the Chinese or the Russians, because they built military forces to do that. They didn’t just do it because they had nothing else to do,” he said.
Gagnon said China’s sophisticated remote sensing system in space allowed its military to monitor the movements of Australian and US troops, which it could then launch with long-range missiles.
While a war between the superpowers was not inevitable, he said the US and Australia needed to be prepared to take on China in space and be aggressive rather than simply defending their assets.
“We must be prepared to attack the PLA’s space capabilities as a protection, defense and joint force so that they can no longer track our ships, so that they can no longer track our forces,” he said.
Donald Trump created the Space Force as a new branch of the military during his first term as president in 2019.
A report released last week by the United States Studies Center found that Australia “lags behind its partners and allies” in space and that it “lacks a clear strategic direction for its space priorities”.
The report’s authors, Kathryn Robinson and Isobel Hedow, warned that “Australia risks being left behind unless it is ready to stand on its own two feet in space.
The government’s new 10-year spending plan for the Australian Defense Force, released last week, said it planned between $9 billion and $12 billion on space capabilities over the next decade.
It also includes the delivery of a new multi-orbit defense satellite communications system designed for use in operations in the Indo-Pacific.
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect through X., Facebook or E-mail
