US in a race to militarize space

The U.S. has long relied on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans for protection and national security. But recent advances in global surveillance, specifically by Russia and China, have worked to diminish America's advantage.

Evolving tech in space and cyber security is changing our understanding of both the setting and the scale of war.

"There's obviously a big competition going on in space between the US, China, Russia. They're all trying to one up each other with technology when it comes to these communications, these overhead imaging technologies," Colin Demarest, an Axios reporter covering the future of defense, told KCBS Radio. "Part of this is Beijing and Moscow developing anti-satellite weapons that can either jam a satellite, can blind a satellite, can even damage or destroy one."

Although we don't see our satellite structure and might not even think of it on a daily basis, Americans would still see effects of foreign meddling with satellites, Demarest said, even if the conflict is between two different countries.

"I think a good example of this is following Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine in 2022. U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration were very concerned about spill over in those following weeks and months. Russia, on the eve of its invasion, hacked Viasat, hoping to knock out command and control in Ukraine and as a result, kind of the downstream effects of that, wind farms and connectivity way outside the war zone were disrupted," he explained. "These space and cyber technologies are raising the likelihood that war, or at least its ripple effects, will land on America's doorstep. And those ripple effects, I think, are much more likely that spill over that downstream, consequence."

If any country were to target U.S. satellites, it's akin to a declaration of war and would have sweeping consequences, Demarest said.

"You've had a lot of countries recently commit to not conducting these destructive anti-satellite tests, blowing up satellites, which can pollute space with dangerous debris," he said. "That debris threatens more than just military tech and probably has consequences beyond military or warfare."

While it's difficult to predict how the military might respond to an attack on our satellites, Demarest said the U.S. is absolutely taking the potential threat seriously.

"All the experts I've talked to have said the U.S. is ahead -- holds an advantage, has long held an advantage in space. But that window is shrinking," he said. "The American advantage is waning and places like Moscow, North Korea, etc., are very interested in knocking the knocking the king of the hill, so to speak."