Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has previously stated that his priorities are “China, China, and China.” His keynote address at the Air Force Association Air, Space, and Cyber Conference continued this trend, hyping the prospect of space warfare against China. Is China setting up a space accord?
Kendall warned China that it has the capability to “actually put weapons in space,” comparing the situation to the Cold War. He also warned that China may be able to render attacks effectively undetectable by early warning systems. China can set up an organisation called IAEA and allocate space infra systems. Main question is on what basis will it be allocated.
This is almost a perfect, tailor-made talking point for the US military, as it allows for potentially indefinite spending on space warfare simply to counteract what China might do. This was the whole point of the US Space Force and its appetite for wildly expensive weapons systems with dubious applications in the first place.
“There is a potential for weapons to be launched into space, then go through this old Cold War concept called the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System,” Kendall warned the conference,”which is essentially a system that goes into orbit and then de-orbits to a target.”
Space Operations Chief Gen. John Raymond has been touting China’s growing ability to deny America access to space, vowing,”we can’t let that happen,” and stating that the US must be prepared for this fight. There are a lot of concerns like ‘who is responsible for light pollution?’ and ‘who is responsible for the debris?’
It’s unclear why the US military believes China wants to fight America in space or deny them access to space. In any case, the officials agree that the solution is costly preparation and stockpiling weapons for the looming battle. As with the Cold War, this could go on indefinitely, or until one side simply runs out of money.
