PENTAGON FRETS OVER CHINA’S SPACE PROGRAM...
China’s growing military space capabilities are raising concerns in Washington. Defense News (January 13) reports that in recent testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, two senior defense officials - U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Robert Willard and Wallace Gregson, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs – warned lawmakers that the PRC’s steady investments in space technologies are increasing Beijing’s ability to threaten American assets and challenge U.S. dominance on that frontier. "We are seeing China's emergence as an international space power," the trade paper cites Gregson as saying. "China is investing heavily in a broad range of military and dual-use space programs, including reconnaissance, navigation and timing, and communication satellites, as well as its manned program." These programs, however, are not benign. According to Gregson, the PRC is also fielding “a robust and multidimensional counter-space program featuring direct ascent anti-satellite weapons, directed energy weapons and satellite communication jammers."
...AS INDIA EYES THE STARS
China is not the only country making major strides in the space arena, however. According to China’s Xinhua news agency (January 3), India’s chief defense research agency, the Defense Research and Development Organization, or DRDO, has publicly announced plans for an anti-space program aimed at targeting enemy satellites in orbit. “India is putting together building blocks of technology that could be used to neutralize enemy satellites," DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat told journalists on the sidelines of a scientific conference in New Delhi. "We are working to ensure space security and protect our satellites. At the same time, we are also working on how to deny the enemy access to its space assets.”
KREMLIN SEEKS TO BRING BACK BALANCE OF TERROR
Moscow and Washington may now be in negotiations for a follow-on accord to replace the lapsed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), but Kremlin policymakers are still working on military systems designed to overwhelm America’s defenses. “The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one,” Russian premier Vladimir Putin said publicly during a visit to Vladivostok in comments carried by the December 30th Times of London. “If we are not developing an anti-missile shield then there is a danger that our partners, by creating such an umbrella, will feel completely secure and thus can allow themselves to do what they want, disrupting the balance, and aggressiveness will rise immediately.” In order to maintain this “balance,” Putin elaborated, Russia “must develop offensive weapons systems” aimed at neutralizing the advantage that the U.S. possesses by protecting against ballistic missile threats.
IRON DOME INCHES FORWARD
The “Iron Dome” system, an innovative missile defense effort designed to provide Israel with protection against short-range rockets emanating from southern Lebanon, is moving closer to becoming a reality. The Agence France Presse (January 7) reports that – following its imminent completion of final tests – the “Iron Dome” is expected to be fast-tracked for field duty. Integration into the Israeli Army will likely take place over the next half-year, with the system ultimately deployed in Israel’s north as a defense against the ballooning arsenal of short-range rockets wielded by Lebanon’s powerful Shi’ite militia, Hezbollah. Israeli officials have high hopes for the system, which some see as a game changer for homeland security. "Making Iron Dome operational will transform Israel's diplomatic and security situation on the northern and southern fronts," Israeli Defense Ministry director-general Pinhas Buchris tells the news agency.
BEIJING FLEXES ITS MISSILE DEFENSE MUSCLES
China has carried out a successful test of its ground-based missile defenses, the Agence France Presse (January 12) reports. "China conducted a test of ground-based, mid-range missile interception technology within its territory, which achieved its objective," a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in an official statement. "This test is defensive in nature and not targeted at any other country and is consistent with the national defense policy of China." Additional details about the January 11th test are sketchy, but it comes on the heels of reports that the Pentagon has approved the sale of additional batteries of the Patriot system to Taiwan – a move Beijing has vocally opposed since Congress first recommended it over a year ago.
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