In previous posts "Is a Space Warfare Arms Race Really Coming?,"Weaponizing Space and the Emerging Space Warfare Arms Race", and "Anti-Satellite Weapons" I covered various developments and emerging trends in respect to space warfare. Last week, China supposedly conducted a jamming test on a U.S satellite, which is more of a satellite ping in order to analyze the response data, rather than jamming :"The Defense Department remains tight-lipped about details, including which satellite was involved or when it occurred. The Pentagon's National Reconnaissance Office Director Donald Kerr last week acknowledged the incident, first reported by Defense News, but said it did not materially damage the U.S. satellite's ability to collect information. "It makes us think," Kerr told reporters.
The issue looms large, given that U.S. military operations have rapidly grown more reliant on satellite data for everything from targeting bombs to relaying communications to spying on enemy nations. Critical U.S. space assets include a constellation of 30 Global Positioning Satellites that help target bombs and find enemy locations. This system is also widely used in commercial applications, ranging from car navigation systems to automatic teller machines.
The Pentagon also depends on communications satellites that relay sensitive messages to battlefield commanders, and satellites that track weather in critical areas so U.S. troops can plan their missions."
What this really was is a rather common satellite ranging practice, thus determing the exact geocentric position of the U.S satellite and tracking it, which is a bit of a unethical move, but given there's no code of honor in space yet, it's more of a demonstration of ongoing R&D activities to me.
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