American General Chance Saltzman believes that space inevitably becomes a potential area of conflict. Therefore, the Pentagon plans to implement a program to strengthen space defense.
The Commander of the US Space Forces, General Chance Saltzman, accused Moscow of trying to disrupt the Starlink satellite communications systems in Ukraine. In an interview with The Washington Post on August 22, he said that so far these attempts have not been successful.
Saltzman talked about the American Replica Warrior Space Architecture space defense program, which allows a constellation of satellites to be launched into low orbit to create a communications network.
The first 10 satellites were launched in April, 18 satellites were launched by the end of the year and another 160 satellites were launched next year, and the network has grown to 1,000 satellites. According to the commander, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites were pioneers in this direction. However, the increase in the number of satellites is associated with problems, especially from the Russians.
“The increase in the number of satellites is a much more difficult targeting problem. We are already seeing the results of this in Ukraine with the Starlink constellation. The Russians are trying to suffocate it, but are not successful,” Saltzman said.
The general also drew attention to China, which, according to him, was “going in a different direction” towards the consolidation of high-tech military assets. Created in late 2015, the PLA’s Strategic Support Force is a hybrid that combines cyber, space and electronic warfare with psychological operations.
“This is a universal tool for waging a modern information warfare,” Saltzman said.
According to him, space inevitably becomes a potential conflict zone, so the Pentagon is faced with the task of space superiority – “we protect ours, we do not allow them.” That’s what the US Space Force is for, and it needs to get bigger and stronger to do its job.
Earlier, according to The New Yorker, businessman Elon Musk reportedly said that he had personally spoken to President Vladimir Putin in a phone conversation with Pentagon representatives about the provision of satellite Internet to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The US Department of Defense concluded that Musk feared that the provision of Starlink communications in the Russian Federation would be considered military aid to Ukraine.
Source: Focus
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