China’s Warning To Elon Musk’s Starlink! Says Its Sub-Launched DEWs Can Hunt Its Satellites, Undetected
Research recently conducted by China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) scientists has claimed that PLA submarines equipped with laser weapons would be able to destroy SpaceX’s Starlink satellites if China’s security was in jeopardy.
The research states that a submarine fitted with a solid-state, megawatt-class laser weapon can fire at satellites while remaining underwater and retracting its “optoelectronic mast” before diving back to the ocean floor.
In a peer-reviewed paper published last month in the Chinese-language journal Command Control & Simulation, the project team headed by Wang Dan, a professor at the Naval Submarine Academy, suggested that this kind of laser attack submarine could be mass-produced in the future and stationed in different oceans to counter military threats to China. A report from the South China Morning Post revealed the study’s specifics.
In another instance of China's skyrocketing defense ambition, scientists of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have conducted a study to take down Elon Musk's Starlink satellites in case they pose a security risk.
The report, published in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), referring to a peer-reviewed paper in the Chinese-language journal Command Control & Simulation, suggests that submarine-launched laser weapons could be used to target and shut down satellites like Starlink in space.
Professor Wang Dan of the Naval Submarine Academy said in the article that the biggest challenge in anti-satellite missions is not hitting the satellite, but hiding after the attack.
"Currently, surface-to-air missiles are the main means of anti-satellite operations, but this approach has certain problems, especially in terms of stealth," Wang et al. wrote in their article (reported by the South China Morning Post). The article also outlined a step-by-step process for attacking satellites like Starlink from the ocean. First, one or more submarines equipped with laser weapons would be sent to the area where the operation will take place. It will enter the target area according to the command and wait until the satellite is in range to attack. The timing to raise the laser weapon will be determined based on the previously recorded flight time of the satellite, according to the SCMP, the research paper continues.
Meanwhile, Reuters previously reported that SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of reconnaissance satellites under a secret contract with U.S. intelligence agencies, according to five people familiar with the program, pointing to growing ties between billionaire Elon Musk and national security officials at the space company.
The network is being built by SpaceX's Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the people said.
The satellites can track targets on the ground and share that data with U.S. intelligence and military officials, the sources said. In principle, this would enable the U.S. government to rapidly and continuously capture images of ground activities almost anywhere in the world to support intelligence and military operations.
