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Analysts say US working on array of satellite defenses

The US military has been quietly working on an array of defenses against attacks on its satellites, including tiny new satellites that could one day be armed for wars in space, analysts say.

That may explain the muted US response to China's anti-satellite test two months ago.

When China destroyed one of its own weather satellites with a ballistic missile in the Jan. 11 test, the White House waited a week until news of it leaked and then issued only a mild expression of concern.

Experts said the test came as no surprise to the US military, which had anticipated that China would develop an anti-satellite capability to put US spy satellites at risk in the event of a conflict over the Taiwan Strait.

A US military satellite already had been dazzled by a Chinese laser in September, and the successful Jan. 11 test had been preceded by earlier missile shots that apparently had failed to hit their target.

"From what I understand, everybody knew the Chinese were working on that and they [the US military] had already taken the appropriate measures," said Vincent Sabathier, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The US military has been preoccupied by the vulnerability of its unprotected networks of satellites at least since 2001 when a commission led by Donald Rumsfeld warned of the danger of a space "Pearl Harbor."

US reliance on satellites is pervasive. The military depends on them for high speed communications, reconnaissance and the navigational signals that guide precision bombs and ships at sea. Civilian uses are myriad.

US counter-measures are cloaked in secrecy and difficult to ascertain.

But three years ago, a program to build stealth satellites popped out of the blue amid a political outcry over its cost, reported to be nearly US$9.5 billion.

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said he believes the stealth satellite program was put in place around the turn of the century in response to the anti-satellite threat from China.

The Pentagon's virtual silence about the Chinese test "is hard for me to understand except to conclude they already felt they had already dealt with this problem some time ago," he said.

Analysts say the military is pursuing other so called "counterspace" strategies -- some defensive and some with offensive applications.
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