Or something like that..
It has been a year since China tested its direct-ascent anti-satellite weapon against one of its own satellites and pundits are mining the anniversary for any significance they can find. Geoffrey Forden has a detailed three-part essay on Wired.com where he argues that with their current capabilities, China is incapable of delivering a knock-out, “Pearl Harbor”-esque blow to U.S. space assets:
In the end, we’ll show, the US would still have sufficient space assets to fight a major conventional war with China, even after such an attack. America’s military capabilities would be reduced, for a few hours at a time. But they would not be crippled. Back in 2001, a commission lead by Donald Rumsfeld warned of a “space Pearl Harbor,” a single strike that could cripple America’s satellite network. It turns out, there is no such thing.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Bill Gertz headlines the Washington Times with news that U.S. satellites are having to change course because of space debris caused by last year’s test.
While not wanting to downplay the unprecedented level of space debris following China’s test, Gertz ignores that such satellite maneuvers are a common occurrence anymore, partly due to the accumulated space debris from similar Russian and U.S. ASAT tests during the 70s and 80s.