Russia and China are developing plans to target Starlink satellites

Journalists gained access to confidential documents from the Third China-Russia Forum. The closed meeting took place in Guangzhou in November 2023.

The authorities of both countries never officially disclosed the existence of this forum. Investigators examined four presentations and the working minutes of June talks held in Moscow.

Five areas of defense cooperation between Moscow and Beijing

The documents reveal extensive coordination in key defense sectors. Beijing and Moscow focused on the following areas:

• Space weapons and systems for destroying satellites.

• Integrated air and missile defense systems.

• Autonomous kamikaze drones capable of operating in swarms.

• Next-generation armored combat vehicles.

• Military aviation.

Planned campaign against Starlink

The Chinese side proposed a step-by-step strategy to counter Elon Musk's satellites. First, Beijing and Moscow plan to form an international coalition. The goal is to achieve regulatory restrictions on SpaceX. They intend to cite the risk of collisions caused by the high concentration of satellites in low Earth orbit.

The next step involves competition over radio frequencies. The countries plan to submit joint applications for orbital positions ahead of the United States, allowing them to block the system's expansion through international regulatory bodies. The authors of the document explicitly describe this approach as a military countermeasure, the media outlet writes.

At the same time, the allies are developing electronic warfare systems. The new technologies would allow them to selectively disable Starlink communications. This would be done through signal jamming and adaptive interference in specific areas.

Physical destruction of Elon Musk's satellites

The most aggressive part of the plan concerns the physical elimination of the threat. The presentation was prepared by researchers from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China's main aerospace contractor.

The engineers propose creating low-cost weapons for attacks in space. The core idea is the one against many principle. Such weapons must be inexpensive enough. Russia and China want to destroy satellites faster than SpaceX can launch new ones.

What China and Russia will share with each other

According to the report, the proposal is to establish the regular transfer to China of data on the combat use of Russian drones in Ukraine.

China has 160 types of loitering munitions from more than 50 manufacturers, but has virtually no real combat experience using any of them.

Russia, on the other hand, has data on the combat use of drones. The proposal is to formalize the exchange: Russia shares battlefield knowledge, while China provides artificial intelligence technologies and mass-production resources for the joint development of the next generation of autonomous swarm munitions.

Technology exchange has already begun

The media outlet notes that this data-sharing plan is already in operation. The V2U autonomous drone used by Russian forces in Ukraine operates on Chinese artificial intelligence modules, Chinese lidar sensors, Chinese batteries, and Chinese solid-state drives.

The supply of components has already been established. Participants at the forum in Guangzhou discussed how Chinese engineering solutions would, in effect, be tested on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Background

Over the past six months, China has shown no significant response to materials provided by Ukraine regarding the use of Chinese components in Russian weapons. At the same time, the share of Chinese components in Russian weapons continues to grow.

Back in April, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine possesses evidence of China supplying weapons to Russia, although Beijing officially denies this.

However, there is also positive news. President Zelenskyy said that China, for the first time, issued Russia a firm and unequivocal warning against any consideration of using nuclear weapons.