中国独自の衛星ネットワークCompass
中国が独自のコンパスcompassと呼ばれる衛星ネットワークを構築する。コンパスはアメリカのGPSとヨーロッパのGalileoとほぼ同軌道上に載せられるので、中国が暗号化した信号を使うと、アメリカが軍事用として精密ミサイルや無人偵察機に使用しているMコードに干渉するようになる。しかし中国政府は最初からヨーロッパのGalileoに加わろうとしていた上、現行の５カ年計画の予算に含まれておらず、公になっている中国語技術文献でも一切触れられていないので、アメリカの軍事予算増額要求の口実かもしれない。
Peter B. de Selding hit the front page of Space News (subscription only) the other day with a scoop about a Chinese plan to build a 24-satellite navigation network, called Compass, in roughly the same orbit as the American and European sat-nav systems, GPS and Galileo. But there’s more: the Chinese are apparently “threatening” to use an encrypted signal for military ops that would actually overlay – and maybe interfere with – "M-Code," the Pentagon's GPS broadcast. That's the signal that keeps everything from precision bombs to flying drones on track.[...]
he Compass constellation itself could be used by the Chinese as sort of a giant jammer in space to muck up GPS. The Compass sats could transmit garbage that disabled GPS, or transmit deceptive signals that would not disable it, but cause it to broadcast incorrect data. They could do this intermittently and sneakily – to undermine confidence in GPS/Galileo reliability (Beijing to Washington, “We’re so sorry, bugs in our system.”) Or they could equip the Compass satellites with high-powered transmitters linked to a big, red DISABLE GPS button at PLA HQ for use in any conflict with the U.S.
