Russia and China Would Gun for America's Achilles Heel in a War: Satellites

Coats noted that both adversary nations are pressing for agreements on preventing the weaponization of space, however the United States intelligence community is suspicious. Russian and Chinese space capabilities are growing rapidly, but moreover, both powers are developing counter-space capabilities to blunt America’s advantage in that domain. “Foreign countries—particularly China and Russia—will continue to expand their space-based reconnaissance, communications, and navigation systems in terms of the numbers of satellites, the breadth of their capability, and the applications for use,” director of national intelligence Dan Coats said in his written testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 6.