WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States maintains a lead over Russia and China in military space capabilities, but is challenged by the pace of their development, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Stephen Kitay told reporters on Wednesday.
“We are still ahead of them, but we are absolutely at risk with the pace that they are developing these capabilities. These are very serious threats,” Kitay said, presenting the Pentagon’s space strategy, which stipulates that China and Russia have “weaponized space” and turned it into a warfighting domain.
Kitay added that the US seeks to maintain space superiority, “which includes having a freedom of operation in the domain, assuring these capabilities to our warfighters throughout the conflict and being able to protect and offend against hostile space activities.”
Among threats the US must purportedly be prepared for, he mentioned projectile firing satellites, nuclear weapons and attempts to jam space systems.
The senior official also told reporters that the US believes that outer space is currently the main theater of potential conflict.
In August 2019, the United States took a major step toward creating a US Space Force by officially launching its newest military branch, the US Space Command.
In July 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron established a space command by approving a division within his country’s air force that will together become the nation’s Air and Space Force.
Russia, amid Washington’s moves, has been constantly calling on the US to stop the militarization of space, highlighting that there is an urgent need to prevent an arms race in space.
Antonov noted that Russia’s attempts to convince Washington to “work together to prevent an arms race in space and to refrain from deploying any weapons there” have failed.
In a similar manner, the Chinese government has criticized US military space policy, with Chinese Defenсe Ministry recently warning that the US and other countries that have created space military forces, could “trigger an arms race in space and in the future negatively affect global strategic stability”.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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