Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
China is building cyber weapons to hack into enemy satellites that would render them useless during wartime, according to a leaked US intel report.
The CIA-marked report was one of the dozens allegedly shared by a 21-year-old US Air National Guardsman in one of the worst intelligence breaches in a decade, the Financial Times reported.
The leak comes at a time when diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington are hanging by a thread over trade and concerns that China may attack Taiwan to forcefully bring the self-governed island back to its fold.
According to the leaked document, the cyber capability would allow China “to seize control of a satellite, rendering it ineffective to support communications, weapons, or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems”.
Washington assessed that the plan to "deny, exploit or hijack" enemy satellites is a core part of China's goal to control information, which Beijing considers a key "war-fighting domain."
China aims to mimic the signals that enemy satellites receive from their operators, tricking them into "either being taken over completely or malfunctioning during crucial moments in combat".
That would knock out the ability of satellites, which tend to operate in clusters, to respond with each other, relay orders to weapons systems, or send back visual and intercepted electronic data, according to the financial daily.
Wahington has never disclosed whether it has similar capabilities.
The report comes a day after General B Chance Saltzman, the chief of the US Space Force, said that Washington is facing a "new era" of threats beyond Earth from the likes of Russia and China that goes much further than jamming.
"The congestion we’re seeing in space with tracked objects and the number of satellite payloads, and just the launches themselves, have grown at an exponential rate," he told CNBC.
He said that Washington's rivals can use lasers and "dazzlers" that interfere with cameras to prevent the collection of satellite imagery, adding that Russia tested an anti-satellite missile in late 2021.
"We're seeing satellites that actually can grab another satellite, grapple with it and pull it out of its operational orbit," General Saltzman said.
"These are all capabilities they're demonstrating on-orbit today, and so the mix of these weapons and the pace with which they've been developed are very concerning.”
He told Congress last month that Beijing was aggressively pursuing counter-space capabilities in an effort to realise its “space dream” of becoming the foremost power in space by 2045.
Beijing has deployed 347 satellites, including 35 launched in the past six months, aimed at monitoring, tracking, targeting and attacking US forces, he added.
Britain’s cyber chief Lindy Cameron warned this week that China is aiming for “global technological supremacy” in cyberspace.
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