中國對衛星下手 美日準備開展防禦工作
As China Stalks Satellites, U.S. and JapanPrepare to Defend Them
中國對衛星下手，美日準備開展保衛工作In May 2013 the Chinese governmentconducted what it called a science space mission from the Xichang SatelliteLaunch Center in southwest China. Half a world away, Brian Weeden, a formerU.S. Air Force officer, wasn’t buying it. The liftoff took place at night andemployed a powerful rocket as well as a truck-based launch vehicle—all quiteunusual for a science project, he says.
在2013年5月，中國政府在西南部的西昌衛星發射中心開展了一項科學空間任務。但在半個地球以外的前美國空軍官員布萊恩維頓並不買賬。發射時間選在晚上，使用的是強大推力的火箭，而且發射裝置是卡車式的——在他看來，對於一個科學項目來說，這顯得異乎尋常。In a subsequent report for the Secure World Foundation, the space policy thinktank where he works, Weeden concluded that the Chinese launch was more likely atest of a mobile rocket booster for an antisatellite (ASAT) weapon that couldreach targets in geostationary orbit about 22,236 miles above the 's the stomping grounds of expensive U.S. spacecraft that monitorbattlefield movements, detect heat from the early stages of missile launches,and help orchestrate drone fleets. "This is the stuff the U.S. really cares about",Weeden says.
接下來，他給安全世界基金會（一個空間政策智庫，也是他的工作所在地）寫了一份報告，他總結道中國的這次發射更像是對用於發射反衛星武器的移動火箭助推器的測試。反衛星武器可摧毀赤道上空22236英里高的地球靜止軌道上的目標。而正是在這個軌道上美國部署着昂貴的航天器，這些航天器監視着戰場的活動，探測導彈發射初期所釋放出的熱量，以及用以協調無人機行動。“所以這正是美國真正關切的東西，”他說。
The Pentagon never commented in detail on last year’s launch—and the Chinesehave stuck to their story. U.S. and Japanese analysts say China has the mostaggressive satellite attack program in the world. It has staged at least sixASAT missile tests over the past nine years, including the destruction of adefunct Chinese weather satellite in 2007. "It's part of a Chinese bid forhegemony, which is not just about controlling the oceans but airspace and, asan extension of that, outer space," says Minoru Terada, deputysecretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
對於中國去年的這次發射，五角大樓從沒有發表過多的看法——中國堅持自己的看法。美國和日本的分析家說中國擁有世界上最具侵略性的衛星襲擊項目。過去九年以來，中國至少進行了6次反衛星武器測試，包括在2007年摧毀了一個沒用的中國氣象衛星。“這是中國試圖成爲霸權國家的一部分內容，不僅試圖控制海洋，還包括天空，以及外太空，”日本自民黨的副祕書長寺田農說。Besides testing missiles that can intercept and destroy satellites, the Chinesehave developed jamming techniques to disrupt satellite communications. Inaddition, says Lance Gatling, president of Nexial Research, an aerospaceconsultant in Tokyo, the Chinese have studied ground-based lasers that couldtake down a satellite’s solar panels, and satellites equipped with grapplingarms that could co-orbit and then disable expensive U.S. hardware.
除了測試可截獲和摧毀衛星的導彈外，中國人還研發干擾技術來阻礙衛星通信。此外，東京航天諮詢機構Nexial Research的主席Lance Gatling稱中國人已經在研究陸基激光武器用以擊落衛星的太陽能板，而且還在研發一種裝備有抓鉤手臂的衛星，該種衛星可繞軌道運行，利用手臂癱瘓美國昂貴的衛星設備。To defend themselves against China, the U.S. and Japan are in the early stagesof integrating their space programs as part of negotiations to update theirdefense policy guidelines. In May, Washington and Tokyo discussed ways tocoordinate their GPS systems to better track what’s going on in space and onthe oceans. A recent Japanese cabinet decision eased long-standing limits onthe military forces’ ability to come to the aid of allies under attack.
爲了免遭中國毒手，美國和日本目前已經開始整合空間計劃，以作爲提升防衛政策準則的一部分協商內容。在5月份，美日兩國討論如何協調他們的GPS系統以更好的監視空間和海洋。日本內閣最近放寬了日本軍隊的限制，使得在盟友遭受襲擊的情況下日本可提供軍事協助。The U.S. is most vulnerable to a Chinese attack because 43 percent of allsatellites in orbit belong to the U.S. military or U.S. companies, according toa Council on Foreign Relations report in May by Micah Zenko. Japan has four spysatellites in service, and a consortium of Japanese companies led by SkyPerfect Jsat Holdings (9412:JP) and NEC (6701:JP) is building two additional communicationsatellites that will transmit encrypted data. The U.S. has about 30 spysatellites in orbit.
美國最容易受到中國的攻擊，因爲軌道上43%的衛星不是屬於美國軍隊就是屬於美國公司，外交關係委員會5月份的一份報告稱。日本目前有四個間諜衛星在服役中，由日本衛星電視公司和日本電氣公司領導的一個財團正在建造兩個額外的通信衛星，將用於傳輸加密數據。美國在軌道上大約有30個間諜衛星。Both countries have sunk billions of dollars into a sophisticated missiledefense system that relies in part on data from U.S. spy satellites. That's whystrategists working for China’s People's Liberation Army have publishednumerous articles in defense journals about the strategic value of chippingaway at U.S. domination in space. "How many missile defense tests haveAmericans carried out?"says Yue Gang, a retired PLA colonel who worked on ASATtechnologies. "China has only conducted a couple of tests, and that’s enough tomake them unable to sit still."
兩個國家都投入了鉅額資金建立自己的導彈防衛系統，而導彈防衛系統部分依賴於美國間諜衛星所傳輸的數據。所以解放軍的戰略學者纔在防衛雜誌上不斷強調削弱美國空間主導權的重要性。“美國已經進行了多少次的導彈防禦測試？”一名退役的解放軍上校嶽剛說道，他之前從事的就是反衛星武器方面的工作。“中國只進行了幾次測試，而這就足以讓他們坐不住了。”Weeden says the U.S. is exploring otherways to mitigate the perceived threat from China, including dispatching a fleetof smaller, mobile satellites that would be harder for adversaries to find anddestroy. Enabling satellite transmitters to quickly hop between frequenciescould address the Chinese jamming threat, Gatling says.
維頓說，美國正在尋找其他方式來應對中國可能的威脅，包括髮射更小型的移動衛星，令對手更難以察覺和摧毀。Lance Gatling認爲，讓衛星發射機在頻率之間快速跳躍，這也能解決中國對衛星的干擾威脅。In June the U.S. Air Force awarded LockheedMartin (LMT) a $914 million contract to build a ground-based radar system thatwill track objects as small as a baseball, which could help identify asatellite attack as it's happening. “Destroying someone’s satellite is an actof war,"says Dave Baiocchi, an engineering professorat the Pardee RAND Graduate School. "You need to know what’s going on upthere."
6月份，美國空軍賦予洛克希德馬丁公司9億1千4百萬美元的合約建造一個地基雷達系統，用以追蹤棒球大小的物體。如此，在發生衛星襲擊事件時就能進行確認。“摧毀別人的衛星就是戰爭行爲，”帕地蘭德研究生院的工程教授Dave Baiocchi如是說。“所以需要知道太空上發生了什麼事情。”
