Inside the race to build Australia’s secret laser weapon to counter China
Australia is secretly racing the clock to field a homegrown satellite-killing laser amid fears China could launch an assault on Taiwan.
A new Australian-made satellite killing laser is threatening to change the nature of warfare ahead of China’s potential invasion of Taiwan.
The Star Wars-style laser can blind satellites, which are crucial for communications and guided missiles.
Engineers are frantically working on the Atlas Space Control system from Canberra based company EOS in the hope it will be ready by 2027.
China’s leader Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be ready by that year to take control of Taiwan.
Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sparked China’s rage last month when she described any Chinese attack on Taiwan as a “survival threatening situation” – the requirement needed to bring Japan into a war.
Any war between China and Japan would draw in the United States, and then potentially Australia, because of our military alliances.
Jennifer Parker, who spent two decades in the Royal Australian Navy, said if there is a conflict in the Indo Pacific then space will be hotly contested.
“It’s not just lasers. China has satellites that can be manoeuvred to knock other satellites out of orbit,” she said.
Dr Parker, who is now a key defence analyst with the Australian National University in Canberra, said losing satellites would make Australian troops vulnerable.
“How do you navigate your ships, do you rely on GPS or do you move to quantum computing to give you more precision in your location to reduce your reliance on GPS,” she said.
“There is this idea that the whole method of warfare has been fundamentally changed but some elements in a conflict would be like what we saw in World War One.”
Australia’s Defence Department has been accused of leaving our troops vulnerable after cancelling a $7 billion military grade satellite program, known as JP9102 to focus on other “strategic priorities”.
Michael Shoebridge, founder of defence think tank Strategic Analysis Australia, said the Australian Government had made a mistake when cancelling the JP9102 program.
“Australia cancelled its new satellite program last year and now Australia is dependent on US systems,” he said.
“If there was a conflict, then those satellites would be a priority target for China.”
Mr Shoebridge said Australia needed to have back up systems in case China knocked out US technology.
However, he questioned whether the ground based lasers like the kind being developed by EOS in Canberra, would be strong enough to reach space.
“The problem with lasers is that the amount of power you need when there is distance involved is phenomenal,” he said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has been developing anti-satellite lasers for years, as well as “dogfight” satellites that can be used to attack and disable other satellites in space.
China has also been developing a “kill web” of hundreds of satellites that can be used to attack western communications satellites in space, according to US Chief of Space General Chane Saltzman.
The PLA first tested an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon in 2007 when it knocked out one of its own satellites that led to dangerous debris being spread around space.
EOS chief executive Andreas Schwer confirmed the potential use of the laser but declined to comment further when approached this week.
The company has already signed a contract to supply anti-drone lasers to a NATO ally in Europe.
The Defence Department was contacted for comment.
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Originally published as Inside the race to build Australia’s secret laser weapon to counter China
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