Pentagon Continues Use of China Satellite in New Lease - Bloomberg

The question that is immediately raised by this article is, "Are they serious?"  Of course, my first response is, why not just give China the key to the city?  Or in this case, the key to the United States' eyes in Africa?  And in fact, Alabama Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee that oversees space programs, thankfully had the same gut reaction.  From Bloomberg:

It "exposes our military to the risk that China may seek to turn off our 'eyes and ears' at the time of their choosing," [Rogers] said last month. 

That very important point isn't really addressed by the article, so more research is needed here.  But, doesn't it seem reasonable that China could, if they own the satellite, turn it off at will?  Or, more radical (yet plausible) before the data makes it to Harris CapRock Communications, couldn't China manipulate it to show (or not show) what it wanted?

 

Another argument to address is that some might say, Well, we're talking about Africa here; not necessarily an American hot zone. Yet, I remember reading not that long ago about China hoarding up as many precious metals as it could get their hands on from that continent, to the chagrin of the United States and tech companies everywhere (lithium ion batteries, anyone?  Solyndra?).  Furthermore, Africa is home to places such as Egypt and Libya and is not too far from Syria and the Middle East.  Just because there is no smoke on the mountain doesn't mean the ranger can ignore it.

 

Now, granted, we're only talking about a $10.7 Million lease, so not the biggest fish in the sea as far as defense contracts go.  But, this is just a small example of a big problem: contracting out the defense of America has resulted and is resulting in decisions made with the bottom dollar in mind rather than, oh, say, the defense of America.  Moreover, only recently has the United States needed to rely on other countries' space programs to do the work that they pioneered and held the corner on for decades, namely space and satellite technology.  RIP NASA.  From the article:

"Under close examination, Apstar-7 remained the only satellite solution available that meets AFRICOM's satellite communications requirements, and operational necessity dictated that the lease be renewed," the Pentagon said in yesterday's statement.

 

What a sad commentary on the state of America's space program.  A Chinese satellite is "the only satellite solution available that meets AFRICOM's satellite communications requirements".