Anonymous Coward
User ID: 39082625
 Canada
04/29/2013 10:35 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | WTF!! Pentagon uses a CHICOM satellite for US military operations in Africa!! What kind of insanity is this?? [ link to www.bloomberg.com] Pentagon Using China Satellite for U.S.-Africa Command
A U.S. lawmaker is questioning the Pentagon’s decision to use a Chinese commercial satellite to provide communications for its Africa Command.
Use of China’s Apstar-7 satellite was leased because it provided “unique bandwidth and geographic requirements” for “wider geographic coverage” requested in May 2012 by the U.S. Africa Command, according to Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Apstar-7 is operated by APT Satellite Holdings Ltd. (1045) The state-owned China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp. holds 61 percent of Hong Kong-based APT, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Pentagon contract was disclosed without details at an April 25 House Armed Services Committee hearing during questioning from Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, chairman of the panel that oversees space programs.
The contract “exposes our military to the risk that China may seek to turn off our ’eyes and ears’ at the time of their choosing,” Rogers, a Republican, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “It sends a terrible message to our industrial base at a time when it is under extreme stress” from the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 30201703
 United States
04/29/2013 10:36 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: WTF!! Pentagon uses a CHICOM satellite for US military operations in Africa!! fckn chicoms...i hate em |
