General Stephen Whiting visits RNZAF Base Auckland in June.
Photo: Supplied / NZDF
New Zealand has once again signalled its willingness to help the United States in space even as a new war of words erupts between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese media on Monday accused the US of “posing serious risks of war in space” through strategies to dominate the skies.
At a US Senate hearing last week, titled ‘Bad Moon on the Rise’, lawmakers had been warned of the consequences if China fulfilled its lunar aims by 2030.
“If China lands on the moon, we’ll see tremendous benefits to China geopolitically, where our allies turn to them, not only for space exploration, but for national security agreements, for trade agreements,” a former NASA official Michael Gold said.
“Make no mistake, we are in a new space race with China,” added Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who called the hearing in Washington. “China is racing to control the moon and low earth orbit and they are not shy about using space to expand their power on earth.”
Top New Zealand defence chiefs discussed the “increase of threats” in space with the top US space commander General Stephen Whiting when he visited Auckland in June.
Rapid ‘responsive’ launch
Newly released briefings from that three-day visit recommended the local defence chiefs tell Whiting that New Zealand could help America with the rapid launch of satellites, and with scanning the skies for threats.
“Investment will be made in systems that plug into partner networks to understand what is happening in space,” one briefing, released under the Official Information Act, said.
The US Space Force has said that rapid – or “responsive” – satellite launch was crucial in a crisis or war. This involves having satellites ready to go within, say, 24 hours if deployed ones fail or are blown up.
“Responsive” launch also came up after Whiting met Rocket Lab in Auckland on the same visit.
“We’re proud to support both national security and commercial missions with responsive launch,” the launch-and-satellite-making company said after the meeting.
Rocket Lab successfully sent into orbit its inaugural responsive launch two months ago, from Mahia Peninsula near Gisborne, for an undisclosed commercial partner.
Commander US Space Command General Stephen Whiting (L) and Rocket Lab founder Sir Peter Beck.
Photo: Supplied / Rocket Lab
‘Why must the US control space?’
Tensions between the Indo-Pacific’s two great powers have been heightened by last week’s massive military parade for President Xi Jinping. His US counterpart Donald Trump was irked, the BBC reported.
Among the ranks of the high-tech weapons Beijing showed off to the world, was a HQ-19 interceptor designed to target ballistic missiles but also, analysts surmised, low-orbiting satellites.
But on Monday, the editorial in the China Communist Party-aligned Global Times asserted that China’s good intentions would soon be on display when it targeted an asteroid, to show it wanted to protect the world from space threats.
It contrasted this with “the US-led weaponisation of space”.
“Why must the US control space?” it asked.
“And why is its space expansion equated with ‘maintaining peace’?
“Clearly, by pushing the ‘China threat’ in space narrative in such high-profile manners [sic], the US essentially aims to legitimise its own expansion of space armaments and to secure more budgets.”
‘Space superiority’
The fresh space-words clash gives new significance to the newly released briefings about Whiting’s visit to NZ.
Officials briefed the defence chiefs about Whiting’s speech to a space symposium in Colorado in April (which Defence and Space minister Judith Collins also spoke at):
“Whiting stated that there is no debate – the space environment has become a battlefield, with adversaries, particularly China, aggressively developing orbital weaponry.”
A briefing quoted him saying: “War in space is not inevitable, but we must apply our best thinking to be ready.”
The Pentagon has in recent months put out new and more aggressive strategies, and a warfighting framework and a directive about space. The briefings summarised them.
Whiting told the Colorado symposium about what had to be done to gain victory and “space superiority”; he made specific mention of a seven-nation space defence partnership that NZ is part of, Operation Olympic Defender, and also about Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defence shield, the OIA briefings showed.
The ‘bad moon’ Senate hearing a few days ago echoed some of this, even though it focused not on the military, but on NASA. Witnesses noted that civilian space tech for landing on Mars could also be used in a war.
Commander US Space Command General Stephen Whiting (C-L) and Rocket Lab founder Sir Peter Beck (C-R) in July.
Photo: Supplied / Rocket Lab
‘Integration of space operations”
A central purpose of Whiting’s visit to Auckland in June was to discuss the “integration of Space operations into multi-domain partner operations”, said the briefings.
“Multi-domain” is used by the Pentagon to refer to warfighting on land, sea, air and in cyberspace. The partners often include the Five Eyes intelligence group of the US, Australia, Canada, NZ and the UK.
This week, Judith Collins is in the UK for a regular meeting of Five Eyes spy agency ministers.
“New Zealand can’t work in isolation when we are dealing with national security – we must always work with our international partners,” Collins said in a statement.
“This week of engagements reaffirms New Zealand’s steadfast dedication to global security and the collective effort required to address these in an increasingly complex and dynamic international environment.”
The NZ government commonly characterises its growing space links to the Pentagon as focused on a multilateral efforts towards a secure, stable and accessible outer space; “including improving interoperability and coordination in the space domain”, as the latest briefings put it.
‘Fearmongered’
Not only in China but a US analysis hit back at the ‘bad moon’ Senate hearing, saying that lawmakers had “fearmongered”.
“Officials and their friends in the industry say it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ war with Beijing will take place in the outer atmosphere,” said a thinktank.
In Monday’s riposte, the Global Times did not mention Trump by name, though critics of his Golden Dome missile defence plan say it will contribute to a space arms race.
This is largely because Golden Dome depends on sending into space constellations of thousands of satellites and sensors linked to interceptors to shoot down missiles.
‘Our location is useful’
New Zealand may have a role in this.
The defence chiefs were advised to tell Whiting that this country’s location was “useful”.
“We will continue to look at other ways in which we can add value, appreciating our location is useful for partnering on ground-based space infrastrucuture (e.g. satellite command and control and space surveillance sensors), and responsive space launch,” was one recommended talking point.
The value of a southern hemisphere orientation to achieve certain orbits is among the points Rocket Lab has made to US markets.
The briefings also noted that missile warning and tracking was a key part of Operation Olympic Defender.
Whiting is head of Olympic Defender. New Zealand joined it at the US’s invite 11 months ago.
Under Olympic Defender, if there was a war, the US and its partners “if directed … would act to deny space capabilities to nations hostile to the national security interests of the US and partner nations where these were threatened”, a briefing to the chief of the Joint Forces said.
Commander US Space Command General Stephen Whiting (L) and Chief of NZ Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Darryn Webb.
Photo: Supplied / NZDF
‘Deter China’
The Whiting briefings shows the NZDF space programme was involved in “integration planning efforts” with strategic parts of US Space Command, as well as coordinating “space domain awareness” with partners through its Space Operations Centre in Auckland.
The NZDF took part in space exercises called Apollo Griffin, which is allied to a half-billion-dollar series of other exercises, Elite Constellation, aimed to “Maintain Core Readiness, Deter China, and Defend the Homeland”, according to US Department of Defence papers.
Donald Trump, who the White House had branded the “President of Peace”, last week signed an executive order to set up a Department of War.
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