US intelligence agencies believe that China has developed sophisticated cyberweapons that can “take control” of satellites belonging to hostile Western countries, rendering them ineffective in supporting communications, weapons, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.China prepares for war
As you may remember, a while ago, top secret US intelligence files were shared in a Minecraft Discord group by 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard Jack Douglas Teixeira. These documents reportedly include CIA files on China’s plans to develop cyberweapons that could intercept, exploit, or capture enemy satellites. Washington says its plans to seize Western satellites are part of China’s bid to control information and it believes Beijing is an important “battlefield”.
According to the documents, one of China’s attacks aims to imitate the signals they receive from the operators of the satellites, either to take over the satellites completely or to cause them to malfunction at critical moments of the war. It is aimed to eliminate the ability of satellites, which usually work in clusters, to communicate with each other and transmit signals, images, data or orders to weapons.
US Space Force Commander General B Chance Saltzman recently said that Washington faces “a new era of threats” beyond Earth. According to Saltzman, China has deployed 347 satellites, 35 of which have been launched in the past six months, into orbit for use against US forces in the event of a future conflict. “China continues to invest aggressively in technology to disrupt, degrade and destroy our space capabilities,” Saltzman said.The Ukrainian-Russian war is an example of this
On the other hand, it is enough to look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine to see the importance of satellite communication in the war. On February 24, when the invasion took place, Russia launched a cyberattack on the US telecommunications provider Viasat. This event resulted in the failure of satellite modems providing internet service to thousands of European customers, including those in Ukraine.
In addition, we have conveyed to you in our previous news that SpaceX Starlink satellites are a special problem for China. Last year, Chinese military researchers were concerned about the potential threat posed by Starlink and urged the government to develop ways to destroy or disable these satellites. In February, China allegedly planned to launch 13,000 satellites to create a rival satellite army to provide global internet, “suppress” Elon Musk’s network, and perform anti-Starlink missions.
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