The Space Force needs to take active measures to better defend its existing constellations from the Chinese Space Stalkers that will “dogfight” with American satellites.
It’s happening. The Space War seems to be on its way, sooner than anyone in Washington wants to admit. In the last week, two bits of news have propagated from the nation’s capital: first, about the prospects of a Russian satellite that can drop nukes on unsuspecting targets from a satellite in Earth orbit; second, of the United States Space Force report that they monitored Chinese co-orbital satellites “dogfighting” in Earth orbit.
Space Is the Next Frontier of War
First, an aside about the importance of space as a strategic, warfighting domain. It is the ultimate high ground.
Whereas the militaries of either China and/or Russia would struggle to defeat the United States military in a straight-up, conventional war, employing unconventional tactics—notably by first destroying American space assets—would effectively render the U.S. military on Earth deaf, dumb, and blind.
This is almost certainly why the Chinese co-orbital satellites were “dogfighting” in space. They were practicing coordination maneuvers for whenever Beijing decides that existing under the constant threat of U.S. military supremacy is simply unacceptable. At that point, Beijing will first move to destroy key American satellites in space before even thinking about striking elsewhere on Earth, such as Taiwan.
By depriving the Americans of reliable access and use of space assets during a time of war, the Chinese (or the Russians) could conceivably defeat the Americans without ever having to face the full wrath of the American military on Earth. They could just cripple the Americans from space. This is the basis of the “Space Pearl Harbor.”
What’s a Space Stalker?
A co-orbital satellite, or a “Space Stalker,” is exactly what it sounds like. It is a satellite, usually faster, smaller, and cheaper than the American satellites it is targeting, that can attack those costlier American systems.
These Space Stalkers have features, like grappling claws, that allow for them to latch onto a targeted satellite and either physically disable them, or push them out of their orbits, sending them careening toward the Earth below, or, as the Russians showcased in 2014 with their LUCH co-orbital satellite, they can attempt to intercept sensitive signals coming to-and-from the targeted Western satellite. During that 2014 incident, the Russians tested their capabilities against a French spy satellite in low-Earth orbit, with apparent success.
There are several critical American and allied surveillance systems in low-Earth orbit that the Chinese would want to disable. What’s more, in 2021, the Chinese demonstrated a capability to deploy Space Stalker co-orbital satellites to the distant, albeit critical, geosynchronous (GEO) orbit around the Earth.
This far-removed orbit is where some of America’s most important satellites reside. GEO was chosen as the home for these systems back in the Cold War, when few other powers could reliably threaten the key U.S. satellites here.
Which American Satellites are at Risk of Attack?
In 2021, China’s Shijian-21 showcased how it could track American satellites in GEO. It would not be difficult, even at those distances from Earth, for a Chinese Space Stalker to sabotage sensitive American systems in that high orbit. Mission critical systems, such as the Nuclear Command, Communication, and Control (NC3) satellite constellation, the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation, and the Navy’s Mobile-User Objective System (MUOS), orbit the Earth in GEO.
China could easily disrupt the coordination of U.S. Navy warships by knocking out the MUOS constellation—or stymie the Army’s ability to conduct synchronized strikes over-the-horizon on Earth by destroying the WGS constellation. With these “dogfighting” satellites, China could potentially degrade America’s vaunted nuclear triad by damaging those NC3 satellites.
While that is an extreme move by China, Beijing’s decision to invade Taiwan, upending the regional order in the process, is itself an extreme move. And any hope that China would have for taking Taiwan would rest on their ability to stymie America’s vaunted power projection. Counterspace attacks with Space Stalkers would be one such method.
How to Defend Against Satellite Attacks
What’s needed is an entire rethink of America’s satellite architecture. For starters, as Brian G. Chow has argued, the United States Space Force needs to develop and deploy its own co-orbital satellites. Although, instead of being used to attack Chinese or Russian satellites, America’s co-orbital satellite could be used as “bodyguard” satellites. As the name suggests, these co-orbital systems could physically defend sensitive U.S. satellites from the kind of Space Stalker attacks that China and Russia wish to subject them to during war.
On a broader note, the Americans must upgrade the way they develop and deploy satellites for the military in general. The Pentagon tends to pile as many capabilities as possible into individual satellites, radically increasing the weight and complexity (and, therefore, the cost) of these systems. There are very few spares on hand for many critical military satellites.
This is another main reason for why both China and Russia conspire to destroy these systems: not only would the destruction of U.S. systems in space render the American armed forces on Earth deaf, dumb, and blind, but the Pentagon would be unable to replace these systems easily or in a timely manner.
So Washington should instead embrace the SpaceX Starlink model for its satellites. By making its satellites smaller and less complex but placing them in large constellations, Starlink has become the pathway to the future of satellite development. These systems are hard to destroy and, when they are lost, their relative simplicity and small size makes it easy—and affordable—for SpaceX to replace without interruption of service.
That is the model that the U.S. military must embrace.
In the meantime, the Space Force needs to take active measures to better defend its existing constellations from the Chinese Space Stalkers that will “dogfight” with American satellites—and surely defeat them, thereby defeating the Americans on Earth.
The space war is here now. It doesn’t look like what is often depicted in popular science fiction movies and television series. But unlike those fictional wars, the clunkier style of real space wars has serious implications for the survival of the United States as the dominant world power.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / Frame Stock Footage.
