The opening moves of the next major war could unfold hundreds of miles above Earth.U.S.adversaries are looking at ways to blind American forces in future conflict by jamming communications, disabling GPS, using lasers to attack satellites or destroying them completely.A sweeping new Defense Intelligence Agency assessment details how China and Russia are developing sophisticated ways to disrupt or destroy U.S.
satellites.This includes a Russian satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon into Earth's orbit.American forces rely on satellites to communicate across battlefields, navigate ships and aircraft, track enemy forces, detect missile launches and guide precision weapons to their targets.
Knocking those systems offline could leave forces below struggling to see, communicate and strike.AMERICA'S NEXT WAR COULD REACH US SOIL, TOP ARMY GENERAL WARNSGPS satellite in Earth orbit.(Universal History Archive/Getty Images)"We can't do military operations the way that we do them today without satellites, without systems in space," Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, previously told Fox News Digital."Whoever has space and can deny that to their adversary has a huge asymmetric advantage in a conflict," Swope said.CHINA IS TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE STARS.
AMERICA MUST RECLAIM SPACE SUPREMACYBeyond the battlefield, satellites underpin everything from GPS navigation and communications to banking, transportation and the electric grid, meaning a large-scale attack in space could disrupt services millions of people rely on every day.Chinese military thinkers have identified reconnaissance, communications, navigation and early-warning satellites as potential targets for attacks designed to "blind and deafen the enemy," according to the report.DIA assesses Beijing could begin threatening or gradually degrading an adversary’s space architecture during a crisis as a "prelude to war."Russia, meanwh...