The US military is close to fielding two new weapons designed to temporally jam Chinese and Russian intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites, giving the Pentagon three counter-space capabilities, according to new Space Force data.
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The weapons, called Meadowlands and Remote Sensing Terminals, will join a larger and less mobile “Counter Communications System” jammer – an upgraded big dish that was declared operational in 2020.
The fresh systems will be dispersed worldwide and sometimes operated remotely, intended to counter what US military officials are more stridently outlining as a growing Chinese space-based threat against US forces.
China has on orbit, as of July, more than 1,189 satellites of which the People’s Liberation Army “benefits from over 510 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites with optical, multispectral, radar and radio frequency sensors”, according to an unclassified Space Force “Space Threat Fact Sheet” updated in September.
Those satellites allow the Chinese to detect US aircraft carriers, expeditionary forces and air wings, the fact sheet said.
The L3Harris Technologies Meadowlands, which is several years behind schedule as a result of technical issues, is currently undergoing final training, live-fire exercises, mission rehearsals and tactics development, and is expected to be fielded this financial year, said the Space Operations Command.