China developing its space capabilities at 'twice the rate' of US: Space Force General

Vice Chief of Space Operations for the US Space Force, General David Thompson, has recently warned that China is developing its space capabilities at “twice the rate” of the United States. While speaking at a panel discussion during the Raegan National Defence Forum on Saturday, Thompson said that if America does not start accelerating development and delivery capabilities, then China will exceed the US. "2030 is not an unreasonable estimate,” Thompson added. 

"The fact, that in essence, on average, they are building and fielding and updating their space capabilities at twice the rate we are means that very soon, if we don't start accelerating our development and delivery capabilities, they will exceed us," Thompson said.

Further, while Thompson stated that 2030 is not an unreasonable estimate for China’s space capabilities to surpass those of the US, he also assured the public that the US Space Force and other military branches can still succeed in catching up with the Chinese. Thompson was then joined by Representative Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee, which helps oversee the Space Force's budget. When asked if the US is competing in a so-called space race with China, Cooper said, “Hell yes”. 

However, Cooper also added that Space Force is not moving fast enough to keep up with the private industry. He said that it is great that the private sector is so much more innovative than Air Force, but he also went on to say that the US need to get the Space Force to be much more innovative and try to keep up with the private sector. “To really be superior, we've got to go beyond Elon Musk's imagination, Jeff Bezos' imagination, beyond their pocketbooks,” he said. 

China’s space programme poses 'incredible threat' 

Meanwhile, it is to mention that in a separate interview with Fox News on Sunday, Thompson spoke about the weapons race in space and competition with China. He said that China’s space programme is “surpassing the US” by a factor of two, posing an “incredible threat” that might make Beijing the dominant superpower in space by the end of the decade if the US does not change its strategy. He also added that the American capabilities are the best in the world of space, but China is moving aggressively. 

“They’re moving quickly and we need to adapt our approach,” Thompson said. He also detailed how Beijing is threatening Washington from space. He said that the Chinese have robots in space that conduct attacks. “They can conduct jamming attacks and laser dazzling attacks. They have a full suite of cyber capabilities,” he added. Thompson even went on to claim that in 2007, China performed an anti-satellite test similar to Russia’s. "Absolutely an incredible threat that we have to address now and in the future," he said.

Image: AP/Unsplash