What is CX-3? Is it a name of a killer ?

The modern battlefield assimilates the most sophisticated technology available in the industry that produces enormous amount of data. A combat force that will leverage the information can gain advantage in the battlefield and reduce the number of casualties. One of the significant advantage is the ability to share information among the units spread in the field and to exploit the data in real-time to reduce the time period from target identifying until target distraction.

One of the most effecting vehicle types in the modern battlefield is the heavy usage of unmanned platforms especially UAVs. Sophisticated payloads integrated in the UAVs combined with complex analytics produce almost endless information that needs to be farther analyze and storage. The information gathered using different ELINT and electro-optic measurements has to be analyzed fast to support the dynamic battlefield. Most modern armies significantly dependent on satellite communication (SATCOM) for the planning and execution of operations. The threats to satellites communication and ground communication systems presents significant challenges to the modern army in a conventional war. In an austere environment, most of the Army’s high-data mission command systems cannot function without satellite connectivity. Potential belligerents’ counter-space capabilities can disrupt the modern army’s access to SATCOM.

Most of the Army’s mission command systems require data rates so high that the only way for them to function in an expeditionary role through SATCOM. The increasing need for SATCOM bandwidth has led the U.S. military to channel its operational communications through the leased networks of commercial satellites. The commercial satellites lack of adequate protection against jamming and are susceptible to state-actor influence.

During the Gulf War, up to 60 satellites supported the transfer of operational data, allowing U.S. ground units beyond the range of LOS radio to keep pace with rapid developments on the battlefield. The amount of digital information that was communicated during the Gulf War “gave the war a new dimension” and paved the way for the further proliferation of military SATCOM. The need for data speed forces the DoD at 2014, to leased the Chinese Apstar-7 satellite to increase bandwidth for United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). Use of communications satellites from companies that are controlled by potentially belligerent governments leaves the United States communications network vulnerable to monitoring and disruption.

?The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China recognizes “the United State’s high reliance on military space systems as a potential ‘Achilles heel' and has been researching and developing counter-space and ASAT capabilities since the 1960s. In the early 1990s Several Chinese universities have developed models for “space intercept control and terminal guidance systems" and in July 2013, China launched a rocket carrying the CX-3, SY-7, and SJ-15 satellites, one of which was equipped with a robotic arm for grabbing or capturing items in space. Once all three were in orbit, the satellite with the robotic arm grappled one of the other satellites, which was acting as a target satellite. The satellite with the robotic arm then changed orbits and came within proximity of a separate satellite type of SJ-7 that is an older Chinese satellite.

Satellite armed with robotic arms can actually snatch other satellites and presents only one aspects of the kinetic possibilities and when digging inside the kinetic options we can find the Nudol direct ascent missile that was launched in 2016 by the Russian armed forces and possess the ability to reaching GEO satellite zone.

There are other non-kinetic methods of impacting satellites, however it is out of the scope of this article. A modern satellite like the satellites assimilated in the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military constellation equipped with features that implements ECCM and overcomes the non-kinetic methods. However, as was published in the article "Space and Electronic Warfare " by the institute of LAND WARFARE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, these ECCM should be considered as temporarily solutions and there should be an immediate measures to neutralize the non-kinetic obstacle.