Satellite communication is another vital field. You’ve seen those dishes on the roofs of every store? That’s transmitting banking and other information. I doubt modern POS Systems will work without that link.
Imagine a preemptive strike against the US’ most important satellites. Would that bring mass confusion and panic? Perhaps even destabilize the government, banks, businesses, and end the US as it’s known today?
That’s todays question.
Has seriously fucked would the US be if a foreign power destroyed the US’ satellites?
Then consider an EMP attack coordinated with the destruction of the satellites?
My understanding of the GPS system was that it was a global effort intended for global use, not just the US. If someone destroyed those satellites, they would be without GPS as would the rest of the world, not just the US.
A lot of telecom satellites are privately owned. Taking one or more of those out would just deprive those customers from their services.
Between all the us corporations that own satellites and those of the US gov’t, there has to be hundreds of them. Most of those corporations are providing services around the world. Another country would need the capability to bring down hundreds. Is it known which are specifically military?
thatguyjeff has it, though. How many scores of satellites would you have to take out to cripple the US? Even if someone proved the capability, they could not expect the USA to sit silently and allow it to happen. I’d bet money there are backup satellites sitting on the shelf at Vandenburg and the NSA shuttle would be launched to counter-attack, along with our own AEGIS ships and their ASAT capabilities.
And then low orbit is so filled with debris that no one can use it for a few centuries and even basic launches are risky.
Scientific American has a good article on space warfare. All the major powers have been researching it. The Chinese did an Anti-satellite missile test in 2007.
That piece is incorrect (wiki gives a decent overview of the history without going too deep into the weeds.) The GPS system was developed by the US Department of Defense. There was an interest in global use …by US military forces. The system is still wholly owned by the US Government and operated by the US Air Force. For a period ending in 2000 they routinely broadcast signals that gave less accurate location fixes to those without US military receivers, although that capability got shut off and then left off of newer satellites designs. The US government can still selectively deny access to the system; that capability got used during the 1999 Kargil War between India and Pakistan. There are still limits put in place by the US government and military specific channels that require classified hardware capable of decrypting the military signal.
There are a number of other satellite positioning systems operated by major countries and the EU. Only Russia and the EU operate systems with a global reach. That’s a response to the US control of GPS in an era when satellite positioning has become so heavily relied upon in civilian use. A given “GPS reciever” may be able to use signals from other systems satellites to still provide location information. That doesn’t make GPS an international system. It just means it’s not the only system. GPS has been and remains a US system able to be unilaterally turned off or limited by the US as an instrument of national power. There’s a reason why other nations spent so money developing their own systems.
An Airman with a keyboard is a more effective means for attacking satellite capabilities than even the most effective ASAT weapon as long as you control the satellites in the first place.
Loss of communication satellites would be a major hassle, but it wouldn’t be crippling. Everything would still work, just much slower (especially intercontinental communications). All communications nowadays go through the Internet in some form or another, and the Internet is designed to re-route around damaged connections.
GPS satellites would also be annoying to lose, but they’re also in a higher orbit than most satellites, and hence harder to attack and less vulnerable to a debris cascade from the destruction of other satellites.