Advertisement
China seeks space supremacy and to exploit it ‘to our detriment’: US intelligence head
- Beijing’s advances in military applications cited as evidence of its plan to build ‘important capabilities to deter or to compel behaviours’
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
46
Holly Chikin Washington
America is seeing from China a heightened “intent to use counter-space capabilities to threaten space”, the director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency said on Wednesday.
Advertisement
“When you talk national security, China aims to displace the United States as the global leader in space and to exploit space in a way that is to our detriment,” according to Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse.
“It counts on what they perceive as a US over-reliance on space, and it intends to hold that capability at risk,” he said during the annual Aspen Security Forum in a panel discussion on space and national security.
Kruse pointed to China’s advances in directed energy weapons, electronic warfare, anti-satellite capabilities as well as on-orbit technology with military applications.
The Sino-American space rivalry has intensified in recent years amid rapid expansions in satellite networks and associated technology.
Advertisement
Advertisement