Gonzaga Debate Institute 2011 Mercury China Coop Aff
ASATs Bad – Hegemony – US Hard Power (3/3)
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ASATs Bad – Hegemony – US Hard Power (3/3)Satellite attacks have significant implications for the U.S. economy and military MacDonald, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, former assistant director for national security, 8 (Bruce W., former assistant director for national security at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “China, Space Weapons, and U.S. Security”, Council Special Report, No. 38, September 2008, p.5, http://books.google.com/books?id=o0GkabrNftIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=us+china+space&hl=en&ei=XSsOTv6QIs_TiALWtdSuBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 7/1/11) EK With China’s demonstration of an ASAT weapon, the United States is concerned that China might soon deploy a substantial ASAT arsenal, consisting of either a fleet of the ASATs it tested in 2007, co-orbital small satellites (“space mines”), or, later, a more advanced ASAT capability based on technologies such as lasers, microwaves or cyberweapons. Such a Chinese deployment could substantially reduce the effectiveness of U.S. fighting forces. While more traditional counterspace capabilities like jammers have a long and well-recognized role in electronic warfare, their effects are localized and temporary and thus can be tailored. Offensive counterspace capabilities could permanently damage or destroy costly satellites and leave substantial harmful debris in space if they physically destroy satellites. The implications of these new counterspace developments for peacetime and crisis stability, as well as the conduct of warfare, are profound. The sudden major loss of satellite function would quickly throw U.S. military capabilities back twenty years or more and substantially damage the U.S. and world economies. While backup systems could partially compensate for this loss, U.S. military forces would be significantly weakened. In addition to shoring up its defenses, the United States also needs to better understand China’s evolving and ambiguous space doctrine. ASATs Bad – MiscalcMagnitude of ASATs impact makes threshold for miscalculation and conflict low Seedhouse, aerospace scientist & PhD from German Space Agency's Institute of Space Medicine, 10 (Erik, “The New Space Race: China vs. the US” Springer and Praxis Publishing Co., http://www.scribd.com/doc/31809026/The-New-Space-Race-China-Vs, accessed: 6/30/11, SL) US asymmetric advantage and vulnerability Given the huge difference in financial and technological resources between the US and the rest of the world, many analysts believe the rest of the world will simply allow the US to achieve space dominance. These same analysts relegate China to the position of a minor player, unable to compete with the American military juggernaut. However, as evidenced by China's ASAT test, such a view may be a grave miscalculation. The Chinese have long since recognized America's dominance of space as both an advantage and a potential Achilles' heel, as evidenced by statements such as the following from an article in the Liberation Army Daily: "Currently, space systems have increasingly become systems in which countries' key interests lie. If an anti-satellite weapon destroys a space system in a future war. the destruction will have dealt a blow to the side that owns and uses the space system, stripped it of space supremacy, and weakened its supremacy in conducting information warfare and even its supremacy in the war at large. Anti-satellite weapons that can be developed at low cost and that can strike at the enemy's enormously expensive yet vulnerable space system will become an important option for the majority of medium-sized and small countries with fragile space technology to deter their powerful enemies and protect themselves."5 However, the US realizes that its space systems will be an irresistible and tempting target in any future conflict, and is planning accordingly: "The American military is built to dominate all phases and mediums of combat. We must acknowledge that our way of war requires superiority in all mediums of conflict, including space. Thus, we must plan for. and execute to win. space superiority." General Richard Myers. Chief of Space Command ASATs Bad – Taiwan ScenarioASATs are part of China’s grand strategy to take Taiwan Stephens, foreign-affairs columnist of the Wall Street Journal, 2007 (Bret, “China’s Gift,” Wall Street Journal, p. 12, January 24, http://www.uyghuramerican.org/articles/766/1/Chinas-Gift/index.html, Accessed June 30, 2011, NS) That didn't happen. Instead, China took the initiative, and for entirely logical reasons. "The test is consistent with China's publicized military strategy," says Yuan Tiecheng of Shanghai's Pacific Institute for International Strategy. "China must develop some sha shou jian -- critical battlefield weapons -- as deterrence to those forces [that support] Taiwan independence or oppose reunification." But why should ASATs, of all weapons, be China's sha shou jian of choice? The ASAT test, says Bernard Cole of the National War College, "is something they've been trying to do for a long time. If you look at their analysis of Western military strategy going back to Desert Storm, they saw that if they could deprive the U.S. of the ability to use space then they would really have a leg up." That's especially true given the U.S. military's increasing reliance on precision and networks over mass and concentration in combat situations -- reliance that is almost wholly dependent on space-based surveillance, positioning and communications satellites. Disable or destroy them, and U.S. military assets such as aircraft carrier battle groups become about as exposed and helpless as the Polish cavalry was circa September 1939. Thus the Chinese have been working toward an ASAT capability, while the West has been doing its best to set a good global example -- and speeding Chinese efforts along. As recently as the early 1990s, the Chinese had not even mastered the technicalities of large solid-fuel motor propulsion. This they acquired with the help of U.S. defense contractor Martin Marietta (now a part of Lockheed) during the Clinton years. The Chinese also mastered the arts of micro- and nano- satellites -- each with potential ASAT uses -- thanks to the assistance of Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd. The Chinese also seem to have fielded ground-based laser systems similar to the one Congress tried to quash in 1985. Last September a report surfaced in Defense News that the Chinese had aimed the lasers at U.S. satellites. Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. 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