China is building cyber weapons to seize control of “enemy” satellites to disrupt data transmissions and military surveillance, according to recently leaked US intelligence. These actions are part of a plan for global control of the information space, which Beijing considers the most important “battlefield”.
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One of the goals of cyber attacks is to disrupt communications between low-orbit Starlink satellites and ground terminals by jamming the necessary frequencies. More ambitious plans are aimed at simulating the signals that satellites receive from their operators in order to break communication or gain complete control over them.
The US, in turn, has never revealed whether it has similar capabilities.
The US military has warned that China has made significant progress in the development of military space technologies, including in the field of satellite communications. Gen. B. Chance Salzman, commander of the US Space Force, told Congress in January that Beijing intends to aggressively use space technology. He noted that the Chinese military has deployed 347 satellites, including 35 launched in the past six months, to monitor, track, target and attack US forces in the event of a conflict.
Taiwan, which has drawn attention to how important the Starlink satellite link was to the Ukrainian military, is seeking to build a communications infrastructure that can withstand an attack from China. The government is attracting investors to set up its own satellite provider, and is also experimenting with non-geostationary satellite receivers placed in 700 locations across Taiwan to ensure network operation and communications in the event of war or natural disasters.
Cyber warfare can become an effective tool in real warfare. At the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, a cyber attack disabled thousands of Ukrainian military routers manufactured by the American company Viasat just hours before the full-scale invasion began. An unnamed Ukrainian government official called the attack “catastrophic.” Then the company’s computer systems were hacked, instructions were sent to the device that led to the failure.
Currently, there are already about 30,000 Starlink terminals operating in Ukraine, hundreds of them in Points of Invincibility – Mykhailo Fedorov
Sources: Ars Technica, Financial Times
