Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: The US Chief of Space Operations General Bradley Chance Saltzman has said that space has changed in only a few years owing to the growing arms race. He singled out China as the biggest threat followed by Russia.
Talking to a selected group of journalists on the sidelines of the Munich security moot, General Saltzman said that the US is seeing a whole mix of weapons produced by its strategic competitors. He said the biggest challenging threat is China followed by Russia.
The US General said that they have to realize the fact that as a contested domain space has fundamentally changed. He said that the character of how they operate in space has to shift, and that is mostly due to the weapons Russia and China have tested and operationalized.
The US General’s words are even more important given the rising US-China tensions — highlighted by tense meeting in Munich between China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken over a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.
US and China relations after balloons saga
The Secretary of State warned Chinese diplomat that his country must not repeat this irresponsible act of operating a surveillance balloon over US airspace. Meanwhile, Wang Yi said the US reaction of shooting down the airship had damaged their bilateral relations.
General Saltzman said the adversaries are leveraging space extending and targeting the range of their weapons. He said that is really the change in the space domain.
The US General rejected the idea that Washington is behind China and Russia in space domain.
