Air Force to boost budget to prepare for conflicts in space.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

* A potential conflict on Earth that escalates into space has prompted the Air Force to find an extra $5 billion to spend on offensive and defensive systems to protect national security satellites.

"We need to get our heads around the fact that space might not always be a peaceful sanctuary," Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Space systems are facing "advanced demonstrated and evolving threats," she said. There is a potential for "hostile actors" in the domain and the service must "have a new mindset when it comes to space," she added.

The two primary space rivals mentioned most often by officials are China and Russia. Threats may come in the form of GPS or satellite communications jamming, cyber attacks on ground infrastructure or, even more alarming to the military, kinetic weapons such as anti-satellite missiles or killer spacecraft.

"The Chinese have continued to test [anti-satellite weapons] since the year 2007," James said in a speech. That was when it destroyed one of its own defunct spacecraft with an anti-satellite missile and left a debris field with some 3,000 pieces that will remain in orbit for years to come.

Gen. John E. Hyten, Space Command commander, said Chinese anti-satellite weapons are still under development but "close to fruition."

James said: "There have been additional tests that didn't destroy a satellite since that time. The testing has continued, so that is an ongoing concern, something that we are watching."

Russia is also a cause for concern, she added. In May 2014, it launched three communication satellites, along with a fourth spacecraft that is maneuvering between higher and lower orbits and sidling up to other objects.

So-called killer spacecraft could remove key components from another orbiter, place explosive charges on it or even ram into it kamikaze style.

"We need to be ready. We must prepare for the potentiality of conflict that might extend from Earth one day into space," James said.

Last year, the Defense Department conducted a strategic review of the space portfolio. One conclusion was that current space systems were designed in an era when space was not contested or congested. "This is no longer the case," James said.

"We need to ensure that our mission can get done despite what could be a very challenging environment in space to include challenges of one day having warfare effects in space," James said. "We must not let...