China wants laser-shooting subs to fight Musk’s Starlink satellites

Elon Musk has so many Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth, the Chinese see it as a threat to their national security

To counter the problem, some Chinese scientists are floating an unusual, but not necessarily unheard of, idea

And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads

Okay, so not really sharks with frickin' laser beams, but subs with lasers? You bet

Stealth submarines fitted with space shooting lasers was definitely an actual idea floated by Chinese scientists to counter Starlink's ever-growing constellation of low-orbit communication satellites

Chinese scientists are not hiding their intentions. On the contrary, they're being very open

The Associated Press did an ysis of dozens of publicly available Chinese research papers, all focused on the threats posed by Starlink's satellites

The head of the U.S. Space Force, General Chance Saltzman, says China is expected to field lasers that could take out or damage satellites from the ground by the end of the year

So lasers on submarines may be possible sooner than later. Some of the other methods discussed to countering Starlink included sabotaging the supply chain Elon Musk uses for his SpaceX companies, either through cyber attacks or other means

One idea even called for building custom-made satellites that can either spray corrosive material on Starlink satellites or push them out of orbit with ion thrusters

China is in the process of launching its own satellite network, similar to Starlink, but Beijing's concerns go beyond competition

China ruling Communist Party sees Starlink as a U military asset in disguise A tool for covert surveillance communication dominance and gaining a warfighting advantage And China is not alone in some of these worries

U.S. allies in Europe are also expressing unease about relying on communications backbone owned by

a private businessman with shifting political ties and immense leverage. Those concerns escalated

sharply during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine back in 2022. Starlink terminals helped

keep Ukrainian forces online while Russian missiles knocked out cell towers and fiber networks

They powered drones, enabled coordination, and provided a decisive edge. That is until Elon Musk

refused to extend coverage for a strike in Russian-occupied Crimea. For military planners

in Beijing and around the world, that incident was a wake-up call, a stark reminder in the modern

battle space, whoever controls the network controls the fight. For others, it was a sign there needs

to be more competition in the commercial space industry. Amazon owner Jeff Bezos has Project

Kuiper with 78 satellites in orbit. One web in London is operating around 650 satellites

But those are meager in comparison to Musk's more than 8,000 satellites currently in orbit

with plans to grow that number by tens of thousands in the coming years

The strategic landscape of space is definitely shifting. What used to be the domain of superpowers is now being shaped by private companies

and countered by state-backed defensive strategists. As Obi-Wan Kenobi taught us, he who holds the high ground holds the advantage

It's over, Anakin! I have the high ground. And in the 21st century, there is no higher ground than space

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