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Space Invaders — Rob Long
This either bothers you or it doesn’t. From Yahoo News:
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the air force to adopt an integrated air and space defence capability, in what state media on Tuesday called a response to the increasing military use of space by the United States and others.
While Beijing insists its space program is for peaceful purposes, a Pentagon report last year highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities and said Beijing was pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis…
A detailed analysis of satellite imagery published in March provided additional evidence that a Chinese rocket launch in May 2013, billed as a research mission, was actually a test of a new anti-satellite weapon.
I really haven’t decided what I think about a stronger China, but I know what I think about a weaker United States. Connecting the dots isn’t always a smart thing to do, but when you connect a surging Chinese military power with a declining American defense capacity, connect them both to a decades-long stagnation of middle class wages and American manufacturing jobs headed overseas (mostly to China), the resulting picture is bleak.
Unless we do something.
Published in General
“I really haven’t decided what I think about a stronger China, but I know what I think about a weaker United States.” True. So consider this..
Cancellation of Tomahawk
Puts American Navy
On Perilous Course
We have a president who was raised to celebrate every American defeat and to be bitter about any American triumph. He is the product of leftist socialist mentors. As his father abandoned him so too will he abandon a nation that gave him far more opportunities than he probably ever deserved.
This might send chills down your spine: The US’s “fatal weakness” (hint: get ready to defend our space satellites):
“A Chinese military analyst this month revealed one of the People’s Liberation Army’s secrets for defeating the U.S. in a future conflict: space warfare.
Yang Minqing, an analyst at the World Affairs Research Center of the state-run Xinhua News Agency, said despite its advanced weaponry, the U.S. military overly relies on “protection and support from its infrastructure in space.” He called this over-reliance the United States’ “fatal weakness.”
As a result, nations like China, Russia and advanced nations in Europe are ready to take advantage of the weakness and could “crush” the U.S. military in “localized attacks” on space systems, communications links and ground facilities.
China has developed several space weapons, including anti-satellite missiles, lasers and directed energy guns, and maneuvering satellites.
U.S. officials have said the military could be crippled in operating over long distances if up to20of its communications, intelligenceandnavigation satellites were knockedout.”
http://missilethreat.com/china-readies-for-short-sharp-war-with-japan/
Time to impose a ‘Tyranny’ tax on Chinese goods – to pay for more defense, IMO.
Questions which are too abstract render responses difficult, it pays to focus.
Would a PRC invasion of Taiwan be a concern to you? Yes or no?
Would a war over the Senkaku Islands between China and Japan be something best avoided? Yes or no?
Yes to both. But what if we weren’t certain we’d win a war to repel an invasion of Taiwan? Or, better: what if we knew we’d lose? The truth is, we’re very close to the day that the Chinese know they can take Taiwan if they want and that we’ll do precisely nothing — aside from complain — if they do.
The oldest lesson ever, Si vis pacem, para bellum.
The best manner in which to win a war is to insure it never occurs in the first place. It is not the strength of China which matters, as you hinted at in your post, the operative question is whether or not we as a nation choose weakness. A rising China will likely be dangerous, but only if we choose it to be so.
What most disturbs me is that the Chinese (not to mention the Russians and all of our other “opponents”) likely know that there’s a relatively small window for this kind of American weakness.
So the smart thing for them to do is to strike while the West is weak. And, just as worrisome, they would likely want to promote Hillary, so that when Obama leaves they can count on such minimal interference to continue indefinitely. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese pushed a heap of cash into the Democrat campaign. And if it looked like the GOP would win in 2016, they’d move against Taiwan before then, making it a fait accompli before the new administration could do anything to stop them.
The only reason the American public isn’t upset at Obama’s weakness is that nothing intolerable has happened … yet.
I didn’t read this post at all, except I saw the word Chinese and thought “I wonder what Rob has to say about the Chinese moving ships into Japanese waters?” Except I then remembered that was what was happening in House of Cards, and not real life. I need a break from politics…
Now I’ll go back up and read the post…
Despite a weak recovery, the United States is still the predomiate economic power. That could change quickly, so we need to ask ourselves now, when we still have our enemies on the ropes, whether we want, not just military superiority, but military supremacy, the latter of which Bill Whittle defines as “there is nobody else in the game.” That should work for everybody, the libertarians so they have their rights, liberals so they have their taxes, and conservatives so they have a shot are redirecting the culture away from insanity.
There is little chance for this–unless there is a war that forces us to choose. That may be the final outcome. It will be incomprehensibly bloody. Not WWII bloody, but WWI bloody. Unless, that is, the US takes steps to stop this with an overwhelming deterrent.
Oh, BTW, a lotta the chips in our tablets and phones are made in Taiwan.
But, not to worry, Mr Obama will lead from behind and protect Taiwan just like he is the Ukraine…. Oh, wait :-(
Part of this is our fault for encouraging our our allies to be overly reliant on U.S. military power. This may have made sense immediately after WWII when our allies were recently our enemies and in no condition to stand up to the Russians. However, by the 1970s we should have sat down with them (especially Germany and Japan) and said, “Okay, you have recovered fully from the last war, you are the economic and industrial juggernauts of your respective regions. It’s time for you to pony up on your military commitments. The U.S. will maintain a token presence, but it needs to be more of an 80/20, or even 90/10 mix from here on out. We’ll maintain a token presence as a political tripwire to affirm our commitment, but that’s it.”
Instead we have saddled ourselves with the commitment of global cop. The rest of the world either takes a free ride, or exploits that we are over-extended. Our mindset towards our allies needs to be the same as that of a parent with an 18-year-old child, “You can pay rent, or move out.”
During his Expression of Grave Concern, I think we can count on Secretary Kerry to go so [recklessly] far as to declare China “on the wrong side of history…”
Oh, you remember the reply from the movie reviewer when asked how he could write a review on a movie he had never seen, “because watching the movie first would bias me so.”
You have to find the money to maintain our military superiority. I advocate a ‘tyranny’ tax on Chinese imports to do so, forcing those who buy these inexpensive goods to foot the bill essentially. While these folks are generally of lower economic means, so that the tax would seem unfair, it happens those same folks supply most of the soldiers, sailors and airmen/women who would bear the cost of conflict with the PRC most heavily.
PS. I have a Taiwanese bride, but still heavily favor helping to defend that country.
A war where satellites are blown up would not just result in those particular satellites being destroyed. The debris would hit and wreck a multitude of other satellites. People in every industrialized country would be affected. It would be like poisoning an aquifer that both you and your enemy draw water from. I pray that the Chinese are smarter than that. I think it would be more likely that satellites would be attacked by a lunatic country like Iran or North Korea, who is not so tied into the global economy.
On the other hand, if you had a weapon that would simply fry the electronics on an individual satellite, killing it without breaking it up, that’s a whole different ball game. I could see any country doing that in a war.
Why should this bother me? I have so many interesting apps on my (Chinese-made) iPhone to help me while away the hours and avoid thinking of such things.
You can also kill satellites by pumping up the radiation belts, say by detonating an A-bomb above the atmosphere. Of course it would be very ecumenical in killing the satellites of a lot of countries in so doing, so again maybe the act of a rogue force/nation.
Also, the Chinese need their recon satellites in order to locate US aircraft carriers to target them – which clearly is their top military priority. We would be shooting their satellites down as fast as they shot ours down or disabled them, don’t you believe? We have to be secure from stealthy attacks that leave no incriminating fingerprint, so as to enforce MAD for satellites: “you destroy/disable our satellites, we do the same to yours”.
A short note on this narrow, particular point.
Tomahawk is a battle-proven technology that has served the Navy extremely well the last two decades. The Block 4 (TLAM-E) was developed in the last few years and continues to be fielded on our warships and carries some more advanced capabilities than previous variants.
That said, the technology is 30+ years old. Without talking too specifically, your iPhone has some more advanced capabilities than these missiles do. Moreover, the size, construction material and flight profile of the missile makes it rather visible on radar. As such, as part of a campaign against a second or third tier military, Tomahawk is an outstanding bet. A more advanced adversary, however, will require a more advanced missile system with improved guidance and a stealthier profile to achieve similar success.
My impression from a Q&A earlier this year with OPNAV N96 (head of Navy acquisitions for the CNO) is that senior leadership understands the need for these next generation requirements in this realm and others, and future fiscal year allocations will likely be made for R&D.
On the bright side, knocking out satellites with high-tech kill vehicles would be emblematic of that 21st-century warfare of which Kerry and Obama seem to be so fond.
As noted above, blowing up satellites is a great way to close off space entirely as it would leave a belt of lethal debris between Earth and everything above.
The Chinese don’t want that any more than we do. They are concentrating on hacking our satellite’s nav systems. Take over the satellite and kick it out of orbit. It burns up during re-entry and the junk that’s left falls into an ocean.
The Chinese will do this while also hacking our power grid, our transportation networks (air traffic control, railroad control, traffic lights), our communications networks and our remaining industrial facilities. They will also hack our defenses. They have already hacked our drones. Think about what would happen if they took over the drones turning them against us.
This will all happen simultaneously giving us too much to handle at once. It will all happen over the Internet.
Bill Gertz has been warning about this ever since they caught the Clintons and Loral selling the satellite tech to them. These days the Navy gives them tours of our most advanced subs, Obama disarms as fast he can, and Chuck Hagel…..uh…uh….really doesn’t have the answer to their questions so he probably just gives them the code.
I think I saw this in “Live Free or Die Hard”.
Or something.