China plans to crush Starlink fleet with constellation of satellites

China vows to launch of a constellation network of 13,000 satellites in an effort to outshine and outwit Elon Musk's Starlink fleet.

Move over China’s spy balloon, theres a new sheriff in town, the artificial satellite.

Chinese researchers from the People’s Liberation Army’s Space Engineering University in Beijing say they’re planning to build a powerful constellation network consisting of exactly 12,992 satellites to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX program.

Researchers say the low orbiting network, like Starlink, will provide internet services to users around the world.

But – this is where it gets interesting – China's satellites will be designed to detect, identify, track and catalog the details belonging to each and every satellite in the Starlink fleet.

What’s more, the satellites will be equipped with new AI weapons, including lasers and high-powered microwaves, developed for use to destroy Starlink satellites that pass over China and other sensitive regions.

Details about the researchers anti-Starlink agenda was published in a Chinese Space journal February 15.

The project, owned by the newly established China Satellite Network Group, goes by the code name “GW,” although it's not clear what the letters stand for.

The rush to get China’s satellites in space before Musk is all part of the game plan.

Starlink has already pledged to increase its network of satellites to 12,000 by 2027, and has mentioned 42,000 at a later date.

That Chinese plan is to deploy the GW constellation “quickly” and bump Musk from hogging all the desirable low-orbiting satellite placements in near-Earth.

The research team said this advantage could also allow them to deploy satellites in orbits where “the Starlink constellation has not yet reached.”

The Chinese government is also touting the idea of forming an anti-Starlink coalition with other nations to bully SpaceX into revealing sensitive location information about its satellites.

Starlink satellites can receive data from the US Department of Defense to plan or coordinate their positions, and they are equipped with surveillance sensors to monitor the space environment, according to the paper.

Currently, SpaceX has over 3,500 satellites orbiting around earth providing internet service for roughly one million people across the globe.

Let the satellite wars begin.