The United States federal government should pursue a defensive space control strategy that emphasizes satellite hardening, replacement, redundancy and situational awareness


Hegemony – US losing Space Dominance



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Hegemony – US losing Space Dominance



[ ] Chinese military space build up undermines US space dominance – it exploits asymmetric vulnerabilities
Tellis 2007 – Senior Lecturer at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace [Ashley J., China's Space Weapons, http://www.globalcollab.org/mailinglists/eassnet/archives/2007/aug/Chinas_Space_Weapons.pdf, Accessed June 21, 2011]
How the weaker can defeat the stronger, therefore, becomes the central problem facing China's military strategy. Chinese strategists have struggled to find ways of solving this conundrum ever since the dramatic demonstration of American prowess in Operation Desert Storm. And after carefully analyzing U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf, Kosovo and Afghanistan, they believe they have uncovered a significant weakness. The advanced military might of the U.S. is inordinately dependent on a complex network of space-based command, control, communications, and computer-driven intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that enables American forces to detect different kinds of targets and exchange militarily relevant information. This network is key to the success of American combat operations. These assets, however, are soft and defenseless; while they bestow on the American military definite asymmetric advantages, they are also the source of deep vulnerability. Consequently, Chinese strategists concluded that any effort to defeat the U.S. should aim not at its fundamental strength -- its capacity to deliver overwhelming conventional firepower precisely from long distances -- but rather at its Achilles' heel, namely, its satellites and their related ground installations. Consistent with this calculus, China has pursued, for over a decade now, a variety of space warfare programs, which include direct attack and directed-energy weapons, electronic attack, and computer-network and ground-attack systems. These efforts are aimed at giving China the capacity to attack U.S. space systems comprehensively because, in Chinese calculations, this represents the best way of "leveling the playing field" in the event of a future conflict.
[ ] Chinese space modernization threatens US dominance – targeting US assets and photographic intelligence
Denmark 2010 - Fellow with the Center for a New American Security [By Abraham M. and Dr. James Mulvenon CNAS, Jan, Contested Commons: The Future of American Power in a Multipolar World http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS%20Contested %20Commons%20Capstone_0.pdf Accessed Jun 21]
Beijing's space aspirations pose significant security concerns for Washington. Most of China's space programs have commercial or scientific purposes, but improved space technology could significantly improve Chinese military capabilities. China may also seek to offset U.S. military superiority by targeting U.S. space assets. China uses satellites for the collection of photographic and electronic intelligence. China's imagery satellites use film canisters that are dropped back to earth for processing--a first-generation technology that does not provide near-real time intelligence. But the Sino-Brazilian Earth Resources Satellite program incorporates digital sensors that transmit images electronically. Low resolution limits the satellite's intelligence potential, but China is developing systems with high-resolution sensors that will provide near-real time imagery. China almost certainly exploits commercial high-resolution imagery for intelligence purposes. Chinese scientists are also exploring synthetic aperture radar technologies to provide radar imagery. China's capabilities will improve significantly as advanced technologies developed indigenously, and acquired through collaborative scientific programs, are incorporated into reconnaissance satellites.


Hegemony – Space Dominance Key to Hegemony



[ ] Space control is key to U.S hegemony – political leadership, dominance in conflict and power projection
Denmark 2010 - Fellow with the Center for a New American Security [By Abraham M. and Dr. James Mulvenon CNAS, Jan, Contested Commons: The Future of American Power in a Multipolar World http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS%20Contested %20Commons%20Capstone_0.pdf Accessed Jun 21]
Command of the commons is the military foundation of U.S. political preeminence. It is the key enabler of the hegemonic foreign policy that the United States has pursued since the end of the Cold War. The military capabilities required to secure command of the commons are the U.S. strong suit. They leverage science, technology, and economic resources. They rely on highly trained, highly skilled, and increasingly highly paid military personnel. As a result of this unfettered access to the commons, the U.S. military has dominated all dimensions of conflict. Geography made the United States a natural sea power, and successful exploitation of air, space and U.S. technological prowess made the United States a power in the cyber commons as well. The commons, in turn, serve as a key enabler of the U.S. military and its ability to project power globally. The American military demonstrated its conventional military dominance in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the 1994 air war over Yugoslavia, the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The utilization of satellites and advanced communications technologies empowered the U.S. military to operate with overwhelming speed, coordination, efficiency and destructiveness. For example, as former Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne explained, “In World War II, it took 1,500 B-17s dropping 9,000 bombs to destroy a given target. Today, one B-2 can strike and destroy 80 different targets on a single mission using weapons guided by space-based USAF global positioning system signals.



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