D.C. hearing: Threats to satellites imperil hurricane aid, GPS, phone links

WASHINGTON - When tornadoes and severe storms struck Texas and Louisiana this week, emergency responders were prepared, thanks to weather satellite information that gave them a three-day warning.

That information might seem routine, given the number and sophistication of data-collecting spacecraft orbiting the Earth.

But government experts are warning that satellites predicting natural disasters, providing geographic coordinates and allowing cellphone communications are just as vulnerable to foreign threats as military ones.

“Unfortunately, talking about a conflict extending to space isn’t science fiction anymore,” Rep. Mike Rogers,  R-Ala., said during a House hearing Wednesday on the vulnerability of U.S. commercial satellites. “The impact of that threat extends beyond the military. It extends to our way of life here in the United States.”

Imaging, communications, GPS and weather satellites, especially those in lower orbits, are joining government spy satellites as targets increasingly susceptible to foreign interference, said retired Gen. William Shelton, who directed the Air Force Space Command.

Other countries “have developed a full quiver of these methods, ranging from satellite signal jamming to outright destruction of satellites via a kill vehicle, such as that successfully tested by China in 2007,” Shelton told lawmakers.

“The pace of these counterspace efforts appears to be accelerating," he said, "and the impact of the use of counterspace capabilities likely would be felt by all sectors of the space community.”

The loss of capability would be devastating, especially in times of crisis and in areas particularly susceptible to natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes and winter storms, said Joseph Nimmich, who was deputy director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Barack Obama.

In his testimony, Nimmich recounted how satellite information helped emergency responders in Florida brace for Hurricane Matthew in late September, weeks before it was projected to make landfall.

As new information from FEMA showed it would hit South Carolina on Oct. 8, federal resources were redeployed and evacuation orders were adjusted. After the worst of the storm had passed, satellite data was used to predict flooding risks and make preparations.

“Emergency managers require extensive, timely and accurate information to make critical lifesaving and life-sustaining decisions,” Nimmich told lawmakers. “Satellites, both national and commercial, inform almost every aspect of emergency management, allowing responders to act faster and smarter to preserve the safety and security of the American public.”

There has been no known attack on a U.S. satellite. China intentionally destroyed one of its own satellites in a test 10 years ago. In 2009 a defunct Soviet Union-era satellite collided with a U.S. spacecraft in what NASA called an accident.

Despite the acknowledged importance of commercial satellites to everyday life, including package tracking and financial transactions, Shelton said little is being done to safeguard them from nefarious players.

China’s decadelong work on satellite-destroying technology and Russia’s renewed interest in similar capabilities hasn’t prompted the wake-up call it should have, he said.

“Many have banged the gong very hard since 2007, but 10 years of innumerable studies and policy debates have not produced tangible improvements in our space protection posture,” Shelton said.

“If you know the armed burglar is on the front porch, you don’t wait until he is already inside the house to take action. Yet that is precisely our posture today.”

Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com; Twitter@ledgeking.