Tuesday Apr 30, 2013
Pentagon
using China satellite for US-Africa Command
A U.S. lawmaker is questioning the Pentagon’s decision to
use a Chinese commercial satellite to provide communications for its Africa
Command.
Use of
China’s Apstar-7 satellite was leased because it provided “unique bandwidth and
geographic requirements” for “wider geographic coverage” requested in May 2012
by the U.S. Africa Command, according to Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush, a
Pentagon spokeswoman.
Apstar-7 is
operated by APT Satellite Holdings Ltd. (1045) The state-owned China Aerospace
Science & Technology Corp. holds 61 percent of Hong Kong-based APT,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Pentagon contract was disclosed
without details at an April 25 House Armed Services Committee hearing during
questioning from Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, chairman of the panel
that oversees space programs.
The contract
“exposes our military to the risk that China may seek to turn off our ’eyes and
ears’ at the time of their choosing,” Rogers, a Republican, said yesterday in
an e-mailed statement. “It sends a terrible message to our industrial base at a
time when it is under extreme stress” from the automatic budget cuts known as
sequestration.
The Defense
Information Systems Agency and the Africa Command “made an informed risk assessment
of operational security considerations and implemented appropriate transmission
and communications security and information assurance measures,” Matoush, of
the Pentagon, said in an e-mailed statement. She said the security of “all
signals to and through the Apstar-7 satellite are fully protected with
additional transmission security.”
U.S. Company
The
satellite’s services were leased under a one-year, $10.6 million contract
through a U.S. company, Artel LLC, Matoush said. Reston, Virginia-based Artel
is one of 18 companies under an established contract the Defense Information
Systems Agency uses for specialized commercial satellite services.
While the
Apstar-7 lease expires May 14, the agency has the option to extend it for as
long as three more years.
Rogers said
he was “deeply concerned a low-level DoD agency was able to enter into a
contract with a Chinese company to use a Chinese satellite launched by a
Chinese missile, seemingly with no input from the political appointees in DoD.”
Representative
John Garamendi, a California Democrat, said the Chinese satellite lease
confirms his suspicion that there’s a lack of coordination among the Pentagon
offices that oversee intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, his
spokesman, Matthew Kravitz, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Bloomberg
HIGHLIGHTS
Over the last
several years, the U.S. government has publicly and loudly expressed its
concern that too much sensitive American data passes through Chinese
electronics — and that those electronics could be sieves for Beijing’s
intelligence services. But the Pentagon says it has no other choice than to use
the Chinese satellite. Wired
Douglas
Loverro, the Pentagon’s top space policy official, told the House panel last
week that the Apstar-7 lease was the only one available to support an urgent
“operational need, but we also recognize that we need to have a good process in
place to assure this” type of decision “is vetted across the department.” “We
recognize that there is concern across the community on the usage of Chinese
satellites to support our warfighter, and yet” officials recognize commanders
“need support and sometimes we must go” to “the only place that we can get” the
service, he said. Bloomberg
The Apstar-7
is owned and operated by a subsidiary of the state-controlled China Satellite
Communication Company, which counts the son of former Chinese premier Wen
Jiabao as its chairman. But the Pentagon insists that any data passed through
the Apstar-7 is protected from any potential eavesdropping by Beijing. Wired
The
U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2012 annual
report said China is “the most threatening actor in cyberspace” as its
intelligence agencies and hackers use increasingly sophisticated techniques to
gain access to U.S. military computers and defense contractors. Bloomberg
Chinese
hackers are moving into “increasingly advanced types of operations or
operations against specialized targets,” such as sensors and apertures on
deployed U.S. military platforms, according to the report. Bloomberg
Chinese
officials have denied responsibility for cyberattacks and said their country is
often the victim of such intrusions. Bloomberg
According to
a 2008 Intelligence Science Board study — one of the few public reports on the
subject — demand for satellite communications could grow from about 30 gigabits
per second to 80 gigabits a decade from now. Wired
The Chinese
are poised to help fill that need — especially over Africa, where Beijing has deep
business and strategic interests. In 2012, China for the first time launched
more rockets into space than the U.S. – including the Chinasat 12 and Apstar-7
communications satellites. Wired
ARA/HJ
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