Reportedly, the United States has orbital weapons capable of both ‘offensive and defensive’ action.
So:
- On July 17, Iran attacks Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, causing significant damage and killing three Americans.
- In late July/August, a Chinese surveillance satellite in an exotic “retrograde orbit” starts to break up in space, creating dozens of fragments of debris. In early September, U.S. tracking data confirms the breakup.
- On September 11, the Wall Street Journal reports that Iran received high-res images of of Muwaffaq Salti Air Base from “Chinese entities” before and after the July attack.
- On September 14, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink acknowledges for the first time that the United States has orbital weapons capable of both “offensive and defensive” action, “employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities through disruption, degradation and even destruction, if necessary.”
Now, as impressive as the implication is, it’s obviously highly speculative. For one thing, the satellite itself (or most of it anyway) seems to be shedding debris rather than completely disintegrating. Second, a big-time space dork who tracks orbital objects tweeted that the nature of the breakup indicated it was “definitely not” the result of intentional action. “Either a battery explosion or an impact by space debris.” He adds that the debris is moving slowly, making a violent explosion less likely.
I don’t know enough to have a worthwhile opinion, obviously, but I don’t think the description is irreconcilable with intentional U.S. action — since there might be “non-kinetic means” that can “disrupt” or “degrade” adversary satellites. That means jamming, surely, but it could also mean any number of other things, such as direct energy, lasers, or microwaves, that could cause damage without behaving like missile warheads.
The Chinese outfit that launched the satellite “described the Yaogan-50 satellites in generic terms, as being for land surveys, crop yield estimation and disaster mitigation.” But “outside analysts assess Yaogan-series spacecraft to carry intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads, including synthetic aperture radar (SAR), optical and signals intelligence sensors.”
The retrograde orbit increases the ground speed of the satellite (since it’s moving in one direction and the earth in the other) making for more frequent passes over areas, and potentially improving the effectiveness of its radar.
Anyway, here’s to hoping it’s experiencing technical difficulties.