A wide-ranging review of the potential vulnerabilities of U.S. satellites is underway as a result of the Chinese destruction of an obsolete orbiting weather satellite on January 11. That test made China the third nation to develop an anti-satellite capability, after the United States and Russia.

The review was ordered last month by General T. Michael (Buzz) Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, according to Peter Spiegel writing in The Los Angeles Times. Although there are treaties that govern weapons in space, many standards about attacking another country's satellites are based on international norms rather than law.

As part of the review, General Moseley has asked senior Air Force Space Command officials to recommend whether new arms programs -- known as "offensive counter-space" systems -- that could disable enemy space systems are needed.

Experts, according to Spiegel’s report, could suggest weapons either on the ground or aboard aircraft that are based on current missile defense technologies."

What I'm looking for is just a better way to think through the challenge, now that other people have a capability to kill a satellite," said Mosley. "It is a contested domain now. I've asked a bit of an open-ended question." He wants the review's preliminary results by June.

All U.S. military services are dependent upon the continuous use of more than 100 satellites that are now in orbit for navigation, communications, surveillance, weapons guidance, weather prediction, surveying, and certain electronic warfare functions. Russia has already developed equipment intended to disrupt GPS signals in an effort to defeat U.S. GPS-guided weapons. 

China is believed to be developing an array of systems to defeat an enemy’s satellite capabilities. According to the latest (2006) issue of the Department of Defense’s annual report Military Power of the People’s Republic of China, “Evidence exists that China is improving its situational awareness in space, which will give it the ability to track and identify most satellites. Such capability will allow for the deconfliction of Chinese satellites, and would also be required for offensive actions. At least one of the satellite attack systems appears to be a ground-based laser designed to damage or blind imaging satellites.”