Arms control experts describe this test as the beginning of an arms race in space
Ten days ago on Thursday, China launched a medium-sized ballistic missile that hit an old meteorological satellite it had made at an altitude of about 750 kilometers. This is what officials in the US government say. The US is concerned about the successful launch. This development could create an arms and armaments race in space. The Americans see this as increasing the military threat to it from China. Washington sent an official protest to Beijing but it did not bother to respond. A special American ambassador sent to Beijing said that it was puzzling why the Chinese wanted to develop the ability to attack American spy satellites precisely when the relations between the two powers were at their peak. The US is also concerned about damage from fragments of the exploded satellite to satellites and other space systems.
The BBC It is reported that arms control experts describe this as the beginning of an arms race in space between China and the US. These experts also say that this is an escalation in the arms race in space for twenty years. Only the USA and the Soviet Union destroyed targets in space in the XNUMXs. Although China used an outdated ballistic missile this time to hit the satellite, they are apparently also developing the ability to hit using laser technology.
The Pentagon recently warned in a report given to Congress that the Chinese military is in the process of a long-term transition from a mass army designed for defensive wars against invasion of their territory, to a modern army that can fight short, massive wars against adversaries equipped with high-tech weapons."
Yitzhak Shelf, Israel's former ambassador to China, said in an interview on Network B that about 50% of the satellites that sail in space, if not more, are American - both military and civilian. The Americans used their satellites to detect alarming military developments in other countries, and until ten days ago they had complete supremacy in space. The tracking stations that detected this development are reliable.
According to the former ambassador Shelf, since 1985 no experiment has been done with space weapons systems (Star Wars) and it is precisely China that has carried out such an experiment. Second, last summer the US stated that space is strategically important to it just like the sea and the air.
The Chinese make it clear through these experiments that they are in the field and it will be impossible to ignore them, and that the US will have to enter into a round of negotiations with the Chinese, the same round that China and Russia offered to the US - in order to remove space from the military domain, the US has so far rejected the offer because she was sure of her superiority.
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Futile efforts, and the need for stabilization:
The successful destruction of a satellite by means of a ballistic missile by the Chinese broadcasts that this monopoly, although it will not remain the exclusive property of the Americans and the Russians, will cause a variety of efforts to devote resources to protecting satellites, whose cyclic orbit and fixed speed create conditions for damage, especially when the potential of technological capabilities in this direction is advancing .
But the Chinese should understand that their attempt to intensify in directions such as the last "achievement", or uncontrolled flooding of product markets (whose production is admittedly controlled), or their attempt to catch "rides" on conflicts between countries, which tend to weaken countries that are considered developed; It is desirable for the Chinese to know that success is also measured by human evaluation measures, that is: the contribution to humanity.
And to the extent that the Chinese need to gain knowledge on the issues of contribution to humanity, it is better that they also spend time and delve into human history, and it may become clear to them: that it would be wrong to develop missiles that would destroy satellites of other countries.
I asked Avi Hilovsky when the 15th team will arrive at the station. Thank you Avi