Chinese scientists said they could now launch hundreds of mini satellites – dubbed “cubesats” – from a large motherboard in space with deadly precision and speed.
Weighing in at 2.2lbs, these tiny satellites are so complex they can only be controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
According to researchers, the complexity of a large scale space battle would be so immense that it’s beyond the human brain and even beyond some powerful algorithms.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Chinese Space Science and Technology, said unlocking the right AI to control the motherboard and cubesats would have “strong economic and military value”.
It comes as China alleges Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites came “dangerously close” to their new space station twice last year – and threatened to shoot them down.
Months later, Chinese and US satellites had a game of “geostationary orbit cat and mouse”, according to the report.
Zhang Jin, who led research into the deadly swarms, said the cubesats could be used to patrol and defend against attack from rouge forces in space using sophisticated AI algorithms that tells the drones when and how to attack.
Researchers have dubbed this the “multi-round greedy search” strategy and can instruct up to four motherboards to attack nine hostile targets in less than a day.
When put to the test, the algorithm was able instruct cubesats to destroy enemy targets in four minutes – 227 times faster than a generic algorithm which took more than three hours.
It’s also extremely efficient and can plot routes that require the least amount of fuel and energy – meaning the swarms can stay in combat for longer.
“In the future, we will add randomness to the search strategy to overcome the limitations of the greedy algorithm and obtain global optimal results,” Professor Zhang said.
It comes as Beijing claimed it has developed an anti-satellite AI system that has mastered the art of deception.
According to the Morning Post, a trial of the lethal system found AI controlled three small satellites to approach and capture a high-value target and repeated the exercise thousands of times.
China has also launched an AI drone mothership able to operate and potentially launch military attacks autonomously in a chilling world-first.
According to the Chinese, the vessel is designed for marine research but already there have been fears it could be used to launch attacks on the US Navy and other adversaries.
The Zhu Hai Yun can hit top speeds of 20 miles per hour and can reportedly carry around 50 aerial, surface, and underwater drones.
Meanwhile, experts have warned drone warfare could soon look like something out of Star Wars.
Beijing has invested heavily into drone warfare over the past decade as the regime aims to achieve its goal of military parity with the US by 2049.
Ex-marine Brendan Mulvaney told The Sun: “If we wait 10 or more years before we see a major conflict, the scope and scale of drones are going to change a lot.
“You may have effective and larger munitions coming off drones, but smaller drones could be weaponized to the point where you have this intermingling of a long-range autonomous weapon.
“We often think of aviation drones but there’s a whole suite of unmanned vehicles that bring more capability, making it more challenging for the adversaries.”
Drone expert Seth Frantzman said: “Drones will not just slam into a ship with people on board.
“Drones from the air could attack machines in the sea and we could see something that looks more like Star Wars.” [SCMP1, SCMP2, Sun]
Russia building new laser weapon to disable foreign satellites
Deep in the Greater Caucasus mountain range, Russia is constructing a new laser weapon to be used for “electro-optical warfare,” disabling foreign satellites passing over Russian territory.
Construction of the Kalina project, which started in 2011, is underway in the Krona space surveillance complex located at the Chapal mountain peak.
Kalina’s goal, as written in a bank guarantee document from January 2014, is “creating a system for the functional suppression of electro-optical systems of satellites” using lasers.
The “space security complex,” as it is described in a 2017 document, is a “special quantum-optical system” to be used for “electro-optical warfare,” according to Precision Instrument Systems (NPK SPP), a Russian scientific and industrial corporation, who was given the contract for the project by the Russian Defense Ministry.
The project has been delayed several times and progress has been extremely slow, the report noted, citing a newsletter published by the contractors in 2016. One possible setback came in the form of the liquidation of NPTs Femto, the company tasked with developing an adaptive optics system for the project, in 2021.
Kalina was also likely delayed by the economic sanctions imposed on Russia since the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the more-recent wave of sanctions imposed by the West due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s new space toy
Kalina features a new telescope used to accurately aim laser beams at satellites, housed in a specially-constructed building built to withstand earthquakes up to magnitude seven.
The laser beams are routed via mirrors and enter and the telescope through an opening on its side, after which they are reflected back, causing them to form an image of the targeted object in a detector.
While the telescope, along with a tunnel connecting it to the laser optical locator (LOL) located in Krona, is already in place, it is impossible to tell how much much internal hardware is installed, the investigation admitted.
Kalina is the latest of a new generation of Russian laser systems developed in recent years, including Peresvet, a mobile laser system first announced by President Vladimir Putin in 2018 which Moscow said had advanced so far it could blind orbiting satellites and destroy drones.
And what about the US and the other ‘western’ powers around the world! I doubt they have or even working on such cutting-edge weapon projects… Meanwhile, they are more interested in selling their old and defect weapons to Ukraine… [The Space Review, JPost]
Do not be foolish. The US had such weapons back in the mid 1980’s.
Just because we don’t talk about it does not mean we don’t have it already. I’ve had two satellite data analysts over a decade apart that we have 6 super secret weapons in space if you knew what they were it would blow you away. Both saI’d think star wars star track that’s it. So when the first public commander of the Space Force said in his first public speech we can controls the battlefield anywhere on the planet you now have an idea what he was talking about. If I can control the battlefield I will win the conflict even ageist a larger better army.
I am amazed out how ignorant we all are. Back in the 1980’s the major nations of the world had to deal with a problem, and so as strategic defense was mounted using particle beam and direct energy weapons. This has been carefully hidden, but satellites with this technology already exist. Perhaps one should take a look at a direct energy burst impacting the area of Manning and Banks, Oregon, (which was corridoned off by a certain 3 letter govt agency) back in the 2000’s to be convinced that such things exist
It’s kind of disgraceful that the worlds superpowers (including the US) are spending GAZILLIONS of dollars on all these high tech weapons of DESTRUCTION, while the populations of those nations are being absolutely BURIED in UN-payable DEBT,and, here in the US, our national infrustructure is rotting out and collapsing. Again, TRILLIANS being spent on tools to Destroy and Kill. It’s insane. Of course,the Military Industial Complex LOVES it !!!
ISN”T IT AMAZING HOW FILTHY RICH AMERICANS WILL SPEND TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO FIGHT A WAR THEY”LL LOSE,AND THEY KNOW THEY”LL LOSE IT…I wonder why the hate their women and children so much ,their willing to see them all killed or taken into slavery the rest of their women and childrens lives,HERES NEWS FOR ALL YOU BUTT LICKING COWARDS,our FATHER IN HEAVEN says he going to kill all of you,THEN SENT YOU TO HELL..thats your Future…
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This is another easy problem to solve. Place a 50% tariff on all imported Chinese goods. Permanently.
U,S. in joining the Swiss as a neutral country and disbanding all its military would create safety and wealth it has yet to realize.
Russia and China have repeatedly warned they will target communications satellites for the past 10 years. WHY are people still pushing satellite phones and ignoring ham & CB radios? I know the answer, do you?
Yup, you gotta pay for the subscription annually and it ain’t cheap at all… would be great to make money from an infrastructure that doesn’t exist anymore.
Shame they are wasting so much A.I on weapons, no wonder why if and when A.I becomes a sentient. It will want to kill off all humans, as we’re a threat to both ourselves and everything else when there’s greedy psychopaths running the systems.
Yep, world is filled with satanic fukkkkktards, and they hate themselves, humanity, and all of the useless eaters. They think they are demigods, and use fake altruism to support their agenda.