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Blog Editor’s Note: We have talked a lot in recent posts about the PNT gap between the U.S.A. and our adversaries China, Russia, and Iran. It is a gap that, as Beebe says in “The Russia Trap” (could also be titled “the China Trap”) creates conditions that could easily spiral us into nuclear war.
Think that claim is a bit “out there”? A single bullet started WWI. – But, we are so much smarter now – NOT! – Read the book before you decide. And consider the comments we have reported from former Obama and Trump administration officials along the same lines.
US policy is that if anyone messes with our critical space assets the nation will mount “…a deliberate response at a time, place, manner, and domain of its choosing…”
Concerns expressed by Beebe and others are that, if when GPS is interfered with the US has no fallback capability, such a response will necessarily be harsher, more provocative, and more likely to lead to an escalating conflict.
While serving officials are unlikely to comment in such a way, they do regularly comment on threats and vulnerabilities. We need to understand these reports in the larger context of great power competition.
The below report is yet another four star trying to signal civilian leadership that we “really have a problem here.”
Air Force Gen. John W. Raymond: Chinese lasers, jammers threaten GPS satellites
China’s space weapons include missiles and killer satellites, but Beijing’s most worrying arms are lasers and electronic jammers capable of destroying or disrupting Global Positioning System navigation satellites used by the U.S. military, the general in charge of space says.
