{"id":305004,"date":"2026-02-27T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/305004\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:51:09","slug":"us-must-be-able-to-turn-around-and-punch-in-space-as-china-boosts-satellites-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/305004\/","title":{"rendered":"US must be able to \u2018turn around and punch\u2019 in space as China boosts satellites: general"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States needs to go on the offensive in space to be able to \u201cturn around and punch\u201d back at China\u2019s rapidly expanding surveillance satellite<\/a> network, according to a US Space Force general.<\/p>\n

According to the US military news website The War Zone, Lieutenant General Gregory Gagnon said China had built \u201cthe second-best remote sensing architecture in the world from outer space\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said China had expanded from fewer than 100 satellites in 2013, when Chinese President Xi Jinping first came to power, to 1,900 today.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

06:25<\/p>\n

Will Musk\u2019s moon pivot put SpaceX on a collision course with China\u2019s lunar ambitions?<\/p>\n

Will Musk\u2019s moon pivot put SpaceX on a collision course with China\u2019s lunar ambitions?<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 500 of those satellites are remote sensing satellites, which are purposely designed and networked to track mobile forces such as US carriers, destroyers and cruisers in the Pacific, as well as aircraft that deploy around the Pacific,\u201d Gagnon said during a round table on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association warfare symposium on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose have been built with a purpose. The purpose is to cue their long-range fire weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gagnon is the head of US Space Force Combat Forces Command, which was established in November as part of the unit\u2019s emphasis on its warfighting functions for anti-satellite warfare, in contrast to its previous roles that mainly focused on surveillance missions.<\/p>\n

Responding to a question about how his command was responding to threats to US orbital assets, Gagnon said protective measures on satellites were \u201cjust like thinking about protective measures on aircraft\u201d, although he did not specify what action the command was taking, saying he did not \u201cwant to tell Beijing and Moscow what I\u2019ve done\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut protecting and defending satellites can\u2019t simply be done by protect and defend. You can\u2019t run away from a bully forever. Sometimes you got to turn around and punch,\u201d Gagnon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States needs to go on the offensive in space to be able to \u201cturn around and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[40132,166923,4177,607,166924,26706,3963,111,139,69,13572,166926,147,392,26707,1430,68700,166925],"class_list":{"0":"post-305004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-air-space-forces-association","9":"tag-asat","10":"tag-beijing","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-gagnon","13":"tag-geo","14":"tag-moscow","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-pacific","19":"tag-pla","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-space","22":"tag-space-force","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-us-space-force","25":"tag-x-b"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}