China and Russia continue to develop and deploy weapons that can attack US satellites, even as they increase their own fleets of spacecraft dedicated to intelligence, surveillance, and espionage, according to a report by the Pentagon's intelligence agency.
According to the US Bloomberg website, the updated report issued by the US Defense Intelligence Agency on Tuesday is based on news reports and announcements from Chinese and Russian officials, but it is nevertheless a useful summary of the threats that say Washington It is the motivation behind pumping large investments in the Pentagon's proposed defense budget for 2023, specifically earmarked for the US Space Force.
According to the intelligence agency, China has multifunctional laser weapons with different levels of ability to disable, smash or damage satellites that currently cannot use laser systems against satellite sensors.
According to Bloomberg, China has been expanding its intelligence, surveillance and spy satellites, noting that by January 2022, it had more than 250 space systems, making it the second country in this field, only surpassed by the United States.
The intelligence agency stated in its report that the Chinese People's Army has the ability to monitor, track and target US and allied forces around the world, especially throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
These satellites also allow - according to the same source - the Chinese army to monitor potential regional tension points, including the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
As for Russia, it considers space to be the fatal weakness of the United States, so it - according to the US report - continues to develop anti-space systems to neutralize or ward off American space services.
It is always possible - according to the aforementioned report - that Russia will be able to use lasers that are more capable of damaging satellites, from the middle to the end of the current decade.
The US Defense Intelligence Agency also confirmed that Moscow already has "many ground-based lasers that can disrupt the work of satellite sensors," noting that by 2030 Russia may deploy systems that can target all parts of the satellite's structure, not just its photoelectric sensors.
The agency further noted that in addition to the threat posed by anti-satellite weapons, "the probability of collision of massive abandoned objects in low Earth orbit is increasing, and it is almost certain that this will continue until at least 2030."
In this regard, it warned of the increasing number of space launches, especially those carrying multiple payloads, as well as the continuous fragmentation of collisions and battery explosions, as well as anti-satellite tests.