Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Colorado Springs Gazette
April 10, 2008 By Tom Roeder, The Gazette
As military dependence on satellites continues to grow, America’s enemies will target signals from space, top Air Force leaders said Wednesday.
Defending America’s satellites is a hot topic this week at the National Space Symposium, which wraps up today at The Broadmoor. The issue has gained attention because it’s becoming a more dangerous threat, said Gen. Bob Kehler, head of Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base.
“You don’t have to go farther than the headlines to validate our concern,” Kehler said in a news conference at the symposium.
Since the beginning of the Iraq war, the military has seen more frequent satellite jamming attempts, and a growing threat that computer hackers could damage networks that control orbiting craft used for reconnaissance, communication and navigation.
Last year, China launched a rocket that destroyed one of its weather satellites in orbit, bringing American protests about the debris cloud created in space and spurring the Air Force to ask for more surveillance of objects circling Earth.
Kehler said his airmen are now looking at space defense differently.
“It’s about assuring the capability rather than defending any one of the platforms,” said the general.
Boiled down, Kehler is looking for more redundancy of the satellites needed by the military and new satellites that would be harder to defeat with simple methods like jamming.
The service is making progress with two new constellations of communications satellites on the way and a new generation of navigation craft.
The Air Force also is looking at ways to launch satellites as soon as they’re needed to meet wartime needs.
While the Navy showed its ability to shoot down satellites earlier this year when it downed an American military spacecraft with a ship-based missile, the focus is on defense, rather than coming up with ways to destroy enemy satellites, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said at a news conference.
April 10, 2008 By Tom Roeder, The Gazette
As military dependence on satellites continues to grow, America’s enemies will target signals from space, top Air Force leaders said Wednesday.
Defending America’s satellites is a hot topic this week at the National Space Symposium, which wraps up today at The Broadmoor. The issue has gained attention because it’s becoming a more dangerous threat, said Gen. Bob Kehler, head of Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base.
“You don’t have to go farther than the headlines to validate our concern,” Kehler said in a news conference at the symposium.
Since the beginning of the Iraq war, the military has seen more frequent satellite jamming attempts, and a growing threat that computer hackers could damage networks that control orbiting craft used for reconnaissance, communication and navigation.
Last year, China launched a rocket that destroyed one of its weather satellites in orbit, bringing American protests about the debris cloud created in space and spurring the Air Force to ask for more surveillance of objects circling Earth.
Kehler said his airmen are now looking at space defense differently.
“It’s about assuring the capability rather than defending any one of the platforms,” said the general.
Boiled down, Kehler is looking for more redundancy of the satellites needed by the military and new satellites that would be harder to defeat with simple methods like jamming.
The service is making progress with two new constellations of communications satellites on the way and a new generation of navigation craft.
The Air Force also is looking at ways to launch satellites as soon as they’re needed to meet wartime needs.
While the Navy showed its ability to shoot down satellites earlier this year when it downed an American military spacecraft with a ship-based missile, the focus is on defense, rather than coming up with ways to destroy enemy satellites, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said at a news conference.