PLA sounds US satellite alarm
Satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink system await release into orbit around Earth from a Falcon 9 rocket as the official newspaper of the Chinese military warned the international community yesterday to be on high alert for the US Armed Forces’ potential domination of outer space via the constellation’s satellite internet system.
“The Starlink project has decided to increase the planned 12,000 satellites to 42,000, underscoring that it is widely distributed, flexible and could be reconfigured quickly,” a PLA Daily commentary said. “The ambition to militarise Starlink and its barbaric expansion deserve high alert from the international community.”
China has raised concerns about Starlink before, complaining to a UN space committee in December that its Tiangong space station had two near-misses with Starlink satellites. Observers have also said Beijing is increasingly concerned about the United States having a head start in space, which militaries are watching closely as a future battlefield.
Private firms from Canada to Germany have begun testing or are already operating low Earth orbit satellite internet services with government support, but China – which heavily relies on state-owned enterprises for military technology – is still in the early stages of development.
The PLA Daily commentary said that once completed, Starlink could allow the US military to gain situational awareness while keeping adversaries in the dark, providing seamless global and around-the-clock reconnaissance and surveillance services to its users.
It also said that Washington was supporting Starlink’s development, detailing funding and infrastructural support from the US military for a system supposedly developed for civilian use.
Low Earth orbit satellite internet allows connections to be encrypted without significant delays because the satellites providing the service orbit the Earth closer to the ground. This allows militaries to understand more about the situation on the ground and make better tactical decisions.