While this year’s report does not contain major revelations, it underscores the Pentagon’s view of China as America’s top strategic competitor.
With regard to space, the report notes that China is closing once-wide gaps with U.S. space capabilities, increasing the possibility it could gain the advantage in a future conflict through attacks on American satellites. The Pentagon sees this as a major challenge. Among China’s anti-satellite weapons that DoD worries about are ground-based missiles and high-power lasers, satellites with robotic arms able to grab other satellites, cyber-attack capabilities and other systems that could jam, blind, or disable U.S. satellites.
