China's Space Capabilities Developing at 'Twice the Rate' of US
US General David Thompson, vice chief of space operations for the US Space Force, said that China's development and delivery capabilities in space will exceed the US.
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China is developing space capabilities 'twice the rate' of US.
China is building its space capabilities at "double the rate" of the US, revealed General David Thompson, vice head of space operations for the US Space Force.
Thomson spoke on a panel of US experts and leaders, at the Reagan National Defense Forum, and confessed that China would overtake the US in space capabilities by the end of the decade.
"The fact, that in essence, on average, they are building and fielding and updating their space capabilities at twice the rate we are means that very soon if we don't start accelerating our development and delivery capabilities, they will exceed us," Thompson said, adding, "2030 is not an unreasonable estimate."
Thompson was joined by Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee, which helps oversee the Space Force's budget, and Chris Kubasik, president, and CEO of L3Harris Technologies, a defense contractor that develops Space and Airborne Systems.
US competes with China
Cooper said, "Hell yes," when asked if the US is competing in a so-called space race with China.
"It's great that the private sector is so much more innovative than our Air Force was, and we need to get the Space Force to be much more innovative and try to keep up with the private sector," Cooper said.
He added: "To really be superior, we've got to go beyond Elon Musk's imagination, Jeff Bezos' imagination, beyond their pocketbooks. (The) budget right now is $17 billion -- that's a lot of money, but considering how crucial space is, are we doing enough?"
Cooper proposed that the Space Force is more like the National Reconnaissance Office, which manages government space spacecraft and delivers satellite intelligence to several US government organizations.
"The NRO has actually done a pretty amazing job," Cooper said. "They're not as well-known as some other agencies. ... But I had a recent side-by-side briefing with the NRO and Space Force. My conclusion after that briefing was: thank God for the NRO. I anxiously await the day that I can say the same about the Space Force."
