PRC Defense: Starlink Countermeasures

The article translated below from the PRC journal Modern
Defense Technology “The Development Status of Starlink and
Its Countermeasures” discusses countering a military threat —
more precisely military threats enabled by much faster
communications — and what capabilities China would need to
counter the Starlink constellation. No secrets herein, just a
guidepost to what China will need to work on to develop the
capability to disable that robust low earth orbit communications
system.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army sponsored online publication
China Military Online on May 5th article “Starlink’s expansion,
military ambitions alert world” also warned of a potential threat
from Starlink. This website also links to the English-language
website of the PRC Ministry of National Defense.
Multi-faceted penetration to multiply military advantages
While Starlink claims to be a civilian program that provides
high-speed Internet services, it has a strong military background, as
well evidenced by the fact that some of the launch sites are built
within the Vandenberg Air Force Base and the encrypted
interconnection between the satellites and Air Force fighters has
been included into their technical verification tests.
As a matter of fact, Starlink has cooperated with American military
many times. In 2019, SpaceX received funds from the US Air Force
to test how well Starlink satellites can connect with military
aircraft under encryption; in May 2020, the US Army signed an
agreement with SpaceX on the use of Starlink’s broadband to
transmit data across military networks; in October 2020, SpaceX
won a USD 150-million contract to develop military-use satellites;
in March 2021, it announced its plan to work with the US Air
Force to further test the Starlink Internet.
When completed, Starlink satellites can be mounted with
reconnaissance, navigation and meteorological devices to further
enhance the US military’s combat capability in such areas as
reconnaissance remote sensing, communications relay, navigation
and positioning, attack and collision, and space sheltering.
excerpt from “Starlink’s expansion, military ambitions alert world”
by Li Xiaoli on China Military Online, which calls itself a website
“sponsored by the PLA. “
In case any military conflicts occurs, the PLA would need to be
concerned about many other satellite communications systems
as well.
See for example the Wikipedia article Defense Satellite
Communications System. Full text: (https://bit.ly/3N2lrgg)