China has fired high-power lasers at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory in what experts see as a test of Chinese ability to blind the spacecraft, according to sources.
It remains unclear how many times a ground-based laser was tested against U.S. spacecraft or whether it was successful.
But the combination of China’s efforts and advances in Russian satellite-jamming capabilities that illustrate vulnerabilities to the U.S. space network are driving U.S. Air Force plans to develop new space architectures and highly classified systems, according to sources.
The hardware on the spacecraft can’t be changed after they are launched, but software changes can help them weather attacks
Lasers of sufficient power could blind electro-optical satellites like the giant Keyhole spacecraft or even interfere with radar satellites like the Lacrosse, experts said. Blinding, one source said, is different than disabling. It requires enormous power to shoot a laser through the dense lower atmosphere and reach a fast-moving satellite in orbit.
Russian jamming systems are publicly known. In 2003, the Air Force destroyed such a system deployed to Iraq to keep American Global Positioning System (GPS)-guided bombs from finding their targets. The site was destroyed by GPS-guided bombs.
Pentagon officials, however, have kept quiet about China’s efforts as part of a Bush administration policy to not anger Beijing, which is a leading U.S. trading partner and seen as key to dealing with North Korea and Iran.
