Will China Nuke Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites?

ANALYSIS – While this may sound like an over-the-top question, Communist China is studying just that scenario.

As leader-for-life Xi Jinping consolidates his totalitarian power over China and accelerates his ambition to dominate globally, America’s satellite system — and more specifically, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite constellation — has become a primary target for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). (RELATED: Senate Democrats Contemplate Bringing Elon Musk to Washington)

The PLA understands that the U.S. military is highly dependent on its space-based communications, tracking and targeting capabilities.

In fact, our satellites are a major component of our global dominance. 

But new systems, like Starlink, not only aid military missions, they provide access to the outside world when totalitarian regimes block news and information.

Starlink is the most ambitious satellite communication project ever, providing broadband internet services to commercial and military users around the globe.

We are seeing this in Ukraine now, with its war against Russia, as well as Iran, during its massive protests.

Starlink aims to put thousands of small satellites in low-Earth orbit.

And it is viewed as almost indestructible due to the sheer number of satellites and its scale.

Of course, Xi sees this as a major potential threat. (RELATED: China in ‘Deep Crisis’ – Worst in Three Decades, Says Pro-Xi Hong Kong Financier)

So, destroying or neutralizing our satellites is priority one for the PLA Strategic Support Forces.

And among a myriad of anti-satellite weapons China has been testing, the latest involves a simulation of a major nuclear detonation in space.

As The Sun reports:

China is planning to use anti-satellite nuclear weapons to blast a spacecraft out of orbit and cripple Elon Musk’s Starlink.

… China has a model to simulate attacks using nuclear weapons to destroy satellites in near-Earth orbit, South China Morning Post reports.

The Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, a Xian-based research institute, claims to have developed a model to evaluate the performance of nuclear anti-satellite weapons.

According to a paper by nuclear physicist Liu Li and his team, the simulation revealed that a ten-megaton warhead could destroy satellites if detonated at an altitude of 50 miles.

The blast would then turn air molecules into radioactive particles sparking a pear-shaped cloud that could cause damage to satellites.

So, the answer to the question is yes. At least the Chinese are studying the possibility of nuking Musk’s Starlink satellite system.

As The Sun reports, “Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, led the study alongside several senior scientists in China’s defense industry.”

“A combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation’s operating system,” the study authors wrote.

And apparently detonating one, or more, huge nukes in space is one option to do that which China is exploring. ALD

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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