27 Apr John Hill, Deputy Assistant Secretary Space and Missile Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, DoD, Potomac Officers Club 2023 Industrial Space Defense Summit: [It is a fact that China and Russia developing counter space satellites and antisatellite missile…both actively developing cyber space tools…means developing cyber systems…space domain awareness integral our ability to protect and to attribute those acts...]
[NDS describes environment…strategic competition China, acute threat Russia…three approaches 1) integrated deterrence, tougher cutting-edge capabilities…any domain and theater 2) campaigning securing military initiatives to advance priorities over time…strengthens deterrence building warfighter advantage…3) build enduring advancements accelerating force development, capabilities technology, investments on people.]
26 Apr Dr. John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, DoD, Atlantic Council Harnessing Allied Space Capabilities: [We're in a state of intense competition with China and of course we're seeing that play out in space as we are in other domains. The quantity and quality of counter-space threats has increased significantly just in the last few years. Conflict with China's not inevitable, conflict in space is not inevitable. China is fielding increasingly complex capabilities that can deny space missions of the Joint Force and their allies and partners.]
26 Apr Dr. John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, DoD, HASC-STR Hearing: FY24 National Security Space Programs: [Our competitors are fielding and developing capabilities to deny the US our capabilities. China has fielding ground-based counter space weapons. It continues to seek methods to hold satellites at risk. China seeks to challenge our ability to conduct joint operations in the Pacific. Russia is working to degrade and deny US space capabilities.]
26 Apr Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), Ranking Member, HASC-STR, HASC-STR Hearing: FY24 National Security Space Programs: [China has doubled their numbers on orbit. PRC and Russia continue to display their capabilities on orbit. Broadly, PRC is putting the capacity in place to hold US assets vulnerable.]
26 Apr Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Chair, HASC-STR, HASC-STR Hearing: FY24 National Security Space Programs: [China and Russia are developing and deploying capabilities to neutralize our advantage. They are developing their own systems.]
24 Apr Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), SAC, SASC, CNAS Fireside Chat: [[CCP and PLA] invested in technologies like AI, hypersonics, and nuclear weapons. DoD joint concept, China seeks to win without fighting. If we do not adapt our approach, the US risks ceding influence and advantage while preparing for a war that never will occur. We need to study and develop asymmetric capabilities.]
On space role in a future conflict with China [Space will be absolutely critical. I believe the next fight will be in the spectrum and a lot of our spectrum runs through satellites. I think it’s absolutely critical. USSC is evolving very effectively. They’re attracting great talent and developing their relationships with others. The whole point is to have uninterrupted connectivity. Space plays a huge role in that. That’s a domain we will prevail in but it will take additional resources and additional efforts.]
20 Apr Gen. John Hyten (Ret.), former 11th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2023 Space Symposium: [Nobody wants war with China. China does not want war with us... We're walking into a war we don't want to get into.]
[Start talking economics with China and figure out what the proper trade relationships are with China. We need to focus on where we have common interests and not just walk down the trap of being there. China has told us exactly what they're going to do all along, and we don't listen.]
20 Apr Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander, Space Operations Command, USAF, 2023 Space Symposium: [Cyber is the soft underbelly of our space enterprise… We have Space Delta 6 to defend our space mission systems. Russia and China have proven they have capability but they would rather take us on in cyber because it’s easier for them and harder to attribute.]
19 Apr Frank Kendall, Secretary, USAF, 2023 Space Symposium: [First, China views space as a military operational domain and is developing and fielding forces intended to dominate in that domain. Second, China does not seem to be constrained by concerns about either debris generation or strategic stability…China does not seem to be constrained by concerns about either debris generation or strategic stability...]
[We must protect those forces from China's space-based systems, especially those who provide targeting information to the ever-increasing range and inventories of cruise and ballistic missiles and even hypersonic weapons that China is intent on fielding…I do not believe that we are unnecessarily in a cold war. Global economies, including China's, are more interconnected than those of the Soviet Union…I do not believe that China will fundamentally change anytime soon; however, modern technology is giving the CCP a degree of control over its population that no authoritarian government has ever had…One team, one fight. These people and many more recognize that the key to countering China is space.]
19 Apr Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, USSF, 2023 Space Symposium: [PRC threats are increasing. High quality capabilities… What was once state of the art is now state of the world and far more accessible.]
18 Apr Rep. Doug Lamborn, Chair, HASC-STR, C4ISRNET “Pentagon: Yes, we are still lagging behind China’s hypersonics”: On Chinese hypersonics “Their progress is undeniable. By contrast, our progress has been slow and has lacked urgency.”
18 Apr Dr. Chris Scolese, Director, NRO, 2023 Space Symposium: [China’s commercial space sector is on pace to become a major global competitor.]
18 Apr Dr. John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, DoD, 2023 Space Symposium: [Confirmation that China is the Department's pacing challenge in space is fast…Conflict with China is not inevitable; conflict in space is not inevitable. We have agency and responsibility in how we proceed, and it is quite literally the Department's job to deter conflict both now and in the future…China is not only developing systems to kill our satellites, it is building a wartime military conflict…China's goal is clear – to use space to challenge the US military's ability to intervene in a regional conflict in the Indo-Pacific…The Department is focused on China we seen that play out in space but I want to make something very clear conflict with China is not inevitable conflict in space is not inevitable we have agency and we have responsibility and how we proceed.]
18 Apr ADM Jon Aquilino, USN, Commander, US INDOPACOM, HASC Committee Hearing: US Military Posture and National Security Challenges in the INDOPACIFIC Region: On space capabilities in INDOPACOM AOR [Should deterrence fail, space critical in all domains…space, cyber, space enabler for terrestrial force…Maintain superior advantage and continue to invest…]
18 Apr Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman, HASC, HASC Committee Hearing: US Military Posture and National Security Challenges in the INDOPACIFIC Region: On China […Tripled defense decade. Modernized…unprecedent advancements in space, hypersonics, AI, quantum computing…military buildup…provocative actions by president XI, pushing out China’s borders…Threating allies in region…]
18 Apr Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, USSF, SAC-D Hearing: Review of FY24 PBR for AF and SF: [Space is undeniably a contested domain. China and Russia define space as such and are investing in technology to undermine the US. Both present serious challenges. Both can hold US space assets at risk. These systems threaten the space architecture the nation relies on.]
18 Apr Frank Kendall, Secretary, USAF, SAC-D Hearing: Review of FY24 PBR for AF and SF: [Department of the AF has worked to identify what we need to deter and if necessary, defeat our adversaries. China, China, China. War is not inevitable but successfully deterring it is dependent on our military capabilities.]
14 Apr Maj. Gen. John Olson, Mobilization Assistant to the Chief of Space Operations, USSF, ABC News “Space Force Official discusses why the US is preparing for potential future conflict in space”: On if the US is losing the space race to Russia or China “No. We have had a strong leadership position in space and that’s civil, commercial, national security and international space through our close partners and allies. We are trying to keep pace not just with our ground systems but our launch vehicles and our satellites and on-orbit systems through not just Earth eccentric, through geosynchronous orbit, low earth orbit but also looking at cislunar space and lunar space and further.”
14 Apr Hon. Mike Rogers, Former Congressman and Chair, HPSCI, McCrary Institute Securing Space: Addressing the Cyber Risk: [China has stated in the near term they want to control the space between Earth and the moon. We needed to make an investment that protects the very expensive things we already have up.]
[We have never really faced a strategic competitor like China. Soviet Union was more brut force. CCP are using economic power to isolate resources around the world. We’re going to have to start lashing things together across the government. We need someone running this and we need more people with green cards who can give the go ahead in the government.]
08 Apr Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, Head of Space Forces, INDOPACOM, Breaking Defense “‘Absolutely critical’ to get DARC space situational systems to Australia: Space Forces Indo-Pacific Head”: “So, what worries me most is China’s use of space to complete the kill chain necessary to generate long-range precision strikes against the maritime and air components scheme of maneuver. That’s what concerns me the most. I have to have the ability to deny China in this situation, as a potential adversary, the ability to do that. And so those are the kinds of things that that you know, worry me the most now.”
05 Apr Dr. Derek Tournear, Director, Space Development Agency, Air and Space Forces Magazine “SDA’s Tournear ‘Just Not’ Afraid of Satellite Shootdowns. Supply Chain is the Greater Worry”: “I’m not worried about any physical threats to the satellites themselves. I’m just not. We’ll have hundreds and hundreds of these satellites up there. It will cost more to shoot down a single satellite than it will cost to build that single satellite. We just completely changed that value equation.”
“Looking ahead, Tournear said he is confident SDA’s plan will deter physical attacks on U.S. satellites, but he remains concerned by “common mode failures”—problems or threats that could affect the entire constellation. “You can’t proliferate your way out of common mode failures,” he said. “The two threats in particular: cybersecurity and breaches of the supply chain.”
05 Apr Gen. Kevin Chilton (Ret.), USAF, National Defense University, Mitchell Institute 2nd Annual Spacepower Security Forum: [Threats to our space capabilities…go back Chinese 1990s study how fight wars…[PRC] sees communications capability of strategic level….[PRC] can’t take on US force on force. Operability…in conflict [PRC] would want to immediate blind US commanders, take away anything get from reconnaissance…would make them unable to communicate with tactical commanders. Blind and mute of US forces in operation (Pacific, extends to Hawaii)…Cyber is important, hard to test. Cyber will be used, but don’t think PRC will rely on them…I think more likely will break the American home (using cyber). Directed Energy…certainly can disrupt, can make things difficult in LEO.]
05 Apr Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, USSF, Mitchell Institute 2nd Annual Spacepower Security Forum: [China pacing set of challenges. USSF must maintain tech advantage…Russia still is a threat. Range of operational capabilities including terrestrial laser, EW sensors, anti-satellite missiles. Shown no qualms about testing these systems. Have every intention of using counterspace weapons in conflict. Cyber attacks, persistent SATCOM and GPS jamming. Both using space for military purposes….Chinese kill webs, long range precision guidance attack. Russia adapts and use commercial ISR systems.]
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