Posted on 05/11/2022 1:43:22 AM PDT by blam
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using an advanced intelligence-gathering satellite for hunting US aircraft carriers and other military assets worldwide, according to South China Morning Post.
Space researcher Yang Fang and her team at DFH Satellite Co., Ltd in Hong Kong published a report in the domestic peer-reviewed journal Spacecraft Engineering that reveals China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) used an AI-powered satellite to detect and “live stream” the USS Harry S. Truman.
A remote sensing satellite, powered by artificial intelligence technology, lurked in low Earth orbit above North America on June 17 of last year and automatically detected the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier off the coast of Long Island, New York. It captured footage of the vessel conducting naval maneuvers, such as adjusting formation and making emergency maneuvers.
Fang said the satellite is incredibly powerful and can analyze hundreds of frames of high-definition images per second for strategic targets — something that would take ground-based computers much longer. And humans would struggle at this very intel-gathering task.
Yang’s team determined Beijing has made a breakthrough in “weight reduction” and image recognition with the algorithm that only needs about 3% of the calculation power used by traditional algorithms when conducting similar tasks.
The satellite is equipped with a family of AI chipsets that can perform multiple tasks, and if one chip fails, another would come online as backup and immediately take over tasks.
Researchers didn’t name the satellite but said it also detected and obtained positions of military assets in northeastern Australia.
This new type of intelligence gathering via AI-powered satellites could one day have a more significant role in decision-making for PLA commanders. Beijing believes that future warfare is through high-tech weapons aided by supercomputers.
The revolution in AI is crucial for PLA to enhance its weapons race with the West as a global power struggle is well underway with Washington. CCP wants to retake Taiwan, dominate the South China Sea and the East China Sea, and even become more prevalent in the Pacific.
This is important because even at 50 knots in the 30 min flight time of an antiship ballistic missile a CVN can only move 25 nm well inside the MARV envelope for maneuvering warheads that also can be datalinked to real time sat intel once close enough they turn on their own active radar seeker or use the massive EM signatures given off by a CVN to adjust coarse for a hit and with 500kt sized warheads a hit is anywhere within 2 miles. Sending multiple warheads on a single missile each on a slightly different trajectory so as to arrive staggered in time by two minutes or so allows you to use salvage fuses to blind your defence radars when a interceptor hits one of your inbound warheads the nuclear fireball blinds radar and IR for a few minutes in the direction of the burst. Warheads can and are hardened to fly through a prior warheads fallout and fireball remnants. You beat back the radar/ interceptor screen with successive salvage fuse nuclear bursts until the last warheads is intercepted to late to not be inside it’s lethal range. If your opponent has MARV capability plus near real time targeting and is willing to go nuclear a carrier is dead meat eventually it’s only a matter of throw weight and warheads to beat back the antiballistic missile defense envelope.
The last 25 seconds of a warhead reentry is all that is needed to hit a carrier. BTDT. The engineering is very simple. We have the tech, so do the Chinese.
Put LED panels topside to mimick sea surface, a cruise liner or something else
The Russia-Ukraine was has demonstrated several truths. For example:
- Corruption can destroy a military: An important lesson for China, which like Russia suffers from rampant corruption. Cutting corners will result in weapons that don’t work, expired MREs, logistical challenges, etc. If China learns this lesson then it will mean they will crack down on corruption and billionaire generals, and thus could actually improve their military.
- ‘Weak’ countries are not necessary weak: Ukraine has has great success by focusing on where their relative advantages are - for example, having defensive bastions where they can stop an invading superior force. They don’t need to match the Russian military - they just need to be able to match them at specific places and in specific ways. Taiwan has seen this, and I imagine there will be an even faster growth in anti-shop, tank and air missiles. That is a calculation China will need to incorporate into their thinking.
- Knowledge is power: If you can see it you can kill it. The sinking of the Moskva was due to Russian stupidity, but had the location of the ship not being given to the Ukrainians that ship would likely still be afloat. China’s investment into satellites like the one in the article is to enable them to locate ships (and planes) with greatest ease from a further distance and greater accuracy. Same thing for stealth - radars slaved to AI may erode some (some) of the advantages stealth has.
A LEO satellite cannot “lurk.” LEO satellites have an orbital period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Their altitude is never more than about one-third of the radius of Earth, 100 miles to 1,200 miles. They move at around 4.7 miles per second velocity relative to a fixed point on the Earth.
So you need a constellation of LEO satellites to provide continuous remote sensing coverage of a target on the ocean or land.
Hopefully we have the technology to disable their satellites, when necessary.
That said, the fact that we’ve let NASA become an ineffective but woke organization has become a national defense issue. Thanks to Musk and Space X, and to President Trump and the Space Force he created, we have some alternatives to NASA. Of course, the left is now demonizing Musk.
Agreed. Good propaganda.
We have the tech, so do the Chinese.
Yes, thanks to Bill Clinton and Loral Space helping China back in the 90’s.
But we are turning into a new era and one might question whether it is wise to absorb the lessons of World War II for the 21st century. In warfare, technology is always overturning the conventional wisdom. Now it is the turn of aircraft carriers to face that fate which they had earlier imposed on battleships. We are now in an age of lasers, satellites, drones, missiles and, above all, nuclear weapons. The role of aircraft carriers is obviously going to be reduced to something similar to the role gunboats played for Victorian Britain, effective to maintain peace on the beat against Third World players but too vulnerable to risk against world-class antagonists like China.
So this brings the cost-benefit equation into play. And it brings it into play at a time when America is no longer the greatest economy on earth, our potential adversary now is, our string of alliances look more like tripwires than allies, our domestic economy might well be going into recession after seven years of muddle, and our politics, to put it generously, are in disarray. We have no obvious national security strategy, no effective implementation of policy anywhere, and no prospect of acquiring these things before January 2017 at the earliest.
Meanwhile China gets richer and we get poorer, more divided and more vulnerable. There is no national sense of urgency and no national sense of a need to reform our defense strategy or our budget sheet. These are the circumstances under which we have to rethink how our wars shall be fought, financed, and won. Whom can we trust to make these decisions, Barack Obama? John Boehner and Mitch McConnell? Who will decide if and when we are going to gradually abandon aircraft carrier technology for satellites, lasers and cyber attacks?
We are, the only question is when and if we will have the right stuff?
If you know where something is, it’s always easy to find it... So here’s the question... Where is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370? When they can find that, then they can say they’ve got a good spy satellite.
Corruption has destroyed our military…..
Prescient. After seeing how easily surface ships can be found and destroyed, I pray for our Navy. Carriers are vulnerable in this age.
Yes, thanks to Bill Clinton and Loral Space helping China back in the 90’s.
—
You can also sing praises to the once Great Leader and pedophile when CCP thermonuclear warheads visit your neighborhood.
Hopefully we have the technology to disable their satellites, when necessary.
—
Only what currently exists - programs cancelled by JoeB in a continuation of 0bama’s anti-deterrence, anti-space policies.
And it brings it into play at a time when America is no longer the greatest economy on earth, our potential adversary now is ... etc
—
As Planned.
Financing goes to people of color, LGBTX, CRT, “Homeless”, drug “mitigation”, other “downtrodden” entities, politician and crony pockets, etc. Military spending will fall below 4% GDP, shrinking as discretionary budgets move more fully to entitlements.
John Boehner???
I believe altering trajectories to arrive 2 minutes later would be impossible, unless the warheads have thrust reversers.
In regards to the specific element of this thread, the ability to see a target by satellite does not mean the target is destroyed.
If the Chicoms elect to send an ICBM to destroy the battlegroup then they have to accept the consequences of launching an ICBM. That's a MAD moment as who knows whats on the tip of the missile?
Your analogy of current carriers and WWII battleships is applicable to the Straights of Formosa where it would be foolish to have a carrier battle group in proximity to coastal cruise missiles. But in all other scenarios the carrier remains the most effective tool for force projection.
It all comes down to the response to China launching ICBMs - including a trans-orbital hypersonic missile. If the Commander in Chief is feckless and dithers, we will be losing carrier battle groups.
Yup. I remember that. They couldn't the second stage of their rockets to work.
Now they're ready to put men on the moon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.