This is such a joke. Trump eliminated any and all surveillance of China and Russia. Now, they want to surveil the USA. It is an act of war. It is a direct attack on our sovereignty.
By Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee
The U.S. military (click here) has been monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern U.S. for the past few days, and military and defense leaders have discussed shooting it out of the sky, according to two U.S. officials and a senior defense official.
“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News. “We continue to track and monitor it closely.”
“Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said....
While Trump told Russia and China there would be no more surveillance of their countries, they increased their production of satellites.
Between 2019 and 2021, (click here) China doubled its number of satellites in orbit from some 250 to 499, while Russia increased its number of orbiting satellites from about 150 in 2019 to 169 last year after a slight dip in 2020, according to a new, unclassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report, Challenges to Security in Space: Space Reliance in an Era of Competition and Expansion.
The DIA study is a follow-on to an agency study in 2019 of the same topic.
“Between 2019 and 2021 the combined operational space fleets of China and Russia have grown by approximately 70%,” per the report. “This recent and continuing expansion follows a period of growth (2015– 2018) where China and Russia had increased their combined satellite fleets by more than 200%. The drive to modernize and increase capabilities for both countries is reflected in nearly all major space categories — satellite communications, remote sensing, navigation-related, and science and technology demonstration.”
A chart in the report, based on quarterly updates to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ satellite database, indicates that the greatest increase in the number of Chinese and Russian satellites between 2019 and 2021 came in Chinese remote sensing satellites which increased in number by some 150 or more since 2019. The Chinese satellites also include several dozen military satellites in the BeiDou — “Big Dipper” — navigation constellation.
Of the 4,852 satellites by the end of last year, the U.S. had 2,944, while China was in second place with 499, and Russia third with 169....
April 13, 2022
By Frank Wolfe
The DIA study is a follow-on to an agency study in 2019 of the same topic.
“Between 2019 and 2021 the combined operational space fleets of China and Russia have grown by approximately 70%,” per the report. “This recent and continuing expansion follows a period of growth (2015– 2018) where China and Russia had increased their combined satellite fleets by more than 200%. The drive to modernize and increase capabilities for both countries is reflected in nearly all major space categories — satellite communications, remote sensing, navigation-related, and science and technology demonstration.”
A chart in the report, based on quarterly updates to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ satellite database, indicates that the greatest increase in the number of Chinese and Russian satellites between 2019 and 2021 came in Chinese remote sensing satellites which increased in number by some 150 or more since 2019. The Chinese satellites also include several dozen military satellites in the BeiDou — “Big Dipper” — navigation constellation.
Of the 4,852 satellites by the end of last year, the U.S. had 2,944, while China was in second place with 499, and Russia third with 169....
