Russia worried about thousands of satellites deployed by US: Reasonable

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Huang Panyue
Time
2019-11-12 10:51:14

By Zhong Yue

A few days ago, Andrei Belousov, deputy permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations office in Geneva, publicly stated that Russia is worried about the satellite cluster composed of over 1,000 spacecraft deployed by the US in space.

In his speech to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA), Belousov said that the number of satellites in the US satellite cluster has exceeded 1,000, almost equal to the sum of satellites deployed by all the rest countries.

He also pointed out that the United States’ registration of all satellites as communications or meteorological satellites was of unknown purpose..

This is not the first time that Russia has expressed concern about the huge satellite cluster deployed by the US in space. Previously, the Russian Astro Space Center (ASC) issued a report saying that the satellites of the US Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP), located in the geosynchronous orbit to monitor military satellites of other countries, maneuver at high frequency.

According to the report, the satellites of the program have been maneuvered for more than 400 times in 2018. It’s highly probable that the US was monitoring other countries' satellites to obtain detailed orbital data.

Secure World Foundation, one of the US think tanks, released a report on the World Anti-Space Defense System, acknowledging that GSSAP satellites have repeatedly secretly approached military and civilian spacecraft of other countries for reconnaissance.

The concern from the Russian side is quite reasonable. In the 1960s and 1970s, the US implemented a series of plans to create “killer Satellites”. Since US President Donald Trump has signed an order to announce the establishment of the US Space Command, the US space military activities have increased substantially, and even the US Department of Defense (DoD) has embarked on the planning of an autonomous orbital space station for military use. Subsequently, President Trump proposed to start the US "Star Wars 2.0" plan. Perhaps, the US is planning to launch a new arms race in space.

At present, satellites have become one of the spacecraft platforms that the US heavily relies on. The future military satellite system plan released by the US Space Development Agency (SDA) will gradually replace the existing large-scale high-value satellites with small-scale lower-priced satellite constellations to deal with the so-called "potential opponents", so as to further enhance the flexibility and invulnerability of the space-based system of the US military. Once the plan is implemented, a large number of small-scale satellites in space may further escalate space congestion, and affect the normal activities of other countries in space.

While advancing the strength of its military satellites, the US has also improved its anti-satellite capabilities. The US DoD recently announced a plan to send spacecraft for satellite maintenance into space in 2020.

The spacecraft is equipped with two large moving robotic arms and various sensors that can track other satellites in orbit, use its robotic arms to capture satellites and transfer them to other orbits.

It can also be used in the military, tracking and capturing military satellites of other countries in wartime, and destroying them with its robotic arms. Previously, the US has also announced an anti-satellite weapons program to make microsatellites act as "space mines".

In addition, the US has also sponsored the Dragonfly Project capable of autonomously assembling antennas in orbit, and the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program that enables satellites in the high earth orbit to be capable of autonomous inspection, maintenance and upgrade in orbit. The technologies employed in the two projects may also be applied to destroy the satellites of other countries with amelioration.

 

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