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GPS is Seen as a Prime Target for Interdiction
China has beamed a powerful ground-based laser at U.S. spy satellites over its territory, a U.S. intelligence agency reported, in an action that exposed the potential vulnerability of space systems that provide crucial data to American troops and consumers around the world. The U.S. Department of Defense refuses to disclose which satellite was involved or when it occurred. As North Korea defies the international community with its nuclear tests, China's satellite jamming is exacerbating already high tensions in this trouble region of the globe.
The stakes are high. A space-blinded U.S. military would be left groping and largely incommunicado. A satellite-deprived commercial aviation sphere would soon see its accident rate escalate and its costs do likewise.
The U.S. military has rapidly grown heavily reliant on satellite data, for everything from targeting to relaying communications to space-based espionage. Critical space assets include 30 Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) that help target weapons and locate enemy forces and assets. This system is also widely used in commercial applications, ranging from car navigation systems to automatic teller machines, geological survey and aircraft navigation, terrain avoidance and landing systems. In fact, with the advent of ADS-B, the GPS satellite constellation will become the lynch-pin for air traffic control world-wide. That GPS is vulnerable to discrete EMI and laser attack is undeniable.
According to senior American officials: "China not only has the capability, but has exercised it." American satellites like the giant Keyhole craft have come under photography defeating illuminatory attack "several...