Hints of cyber’s role in Taiwan

source: axios.com, contributed by Artemus FAN, Bill Amshey  |  image: pixabay.com

 

he latest evidence of China-linked hackers infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure is highlighting what role cyberattacks could end up playing in a possible invasion of Taiwan.

What’s happening: Earlier this week, researchers at Microsoft unveiled that a Chinese state-sponsored groupknown as Volt Typhoon has been targeting critical infrastructure organizations in the U.S. and Guam.

  • Affected organizations spanned a long list of sectors: communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology and education.
  • Volt Typhoon, which has been in operation since mid-2021, infiltrated these organizations by targeting internet-facing devices running Fortinet’s FortiGuard products, per Microsoft.
  • Once inside, the hackers can start “living off the land” and obtain access to a network by stealing user credentials and rerouting any suspicious traffic through home routers, Microsoft said.

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China is doubling down on its race to the moon

source: fastcompany.com  |  image: pixabay.com

China cemented its lunar goals in June 2021, when it formed the International Lunar Research Station.

China has set out a road map to compete with the Artemis program in a race to the moon, grabbing the attention of NASA and U.S. lawmakers. 

As NASA pursues increased funding to ensure the U.S. lands first, questions remain regarding China’s ability to finance the endeavor.

“China’s funding is a bit of a black box,” says Kevin Pollpeter, a China space program expert at the Center for Naval Analyses. “But if they felt they could not afford to go to the moon, they would not have gotten it approved.” 

CHINA’S 2023 LUNAR ROAD MAP

China has recently released a flurry of new details on its lunar goals, including accelerated timelines and a slew of technical designs. In just the first five months of the year, Beijing has:

  • Unveiled designs for its lunar lander;
  • Released details on its fully reusable Long March 9 rocket;
  • Begun building an international coalition for its moon base;
  • Announced plans to break ground on a lunar base by 2028;
  • Declared its goal of landing a crew on the moon by 2030.

​​“By 2030, the Chinese people will definitely be able to set foot on the moon. That’s not a problem,” said Wu Weiren, chief designer of the lunar program at China’s Space Day last month. 

HUGE INVESTMENT 

Landing humans on the moon is a pricey undertaking. From 2012 through 2028, NASA will spend an estimated $102.5 billion on the Artemis program. 

  • 2012-2023: $61 billion of program expenditures, according to NASA’s inspector general and recent budget allocations
  • 2024-2028: $41.5 billion, according to a NASA update on May 15, 2023
CHINA’S BUDGET

Research firm Euroconsult estimates that China spent roughly $12 billion on its space program in 2022; $12 billion per year would likely be insufficient for China to fund both the Tiangong low Earth orbit station and a $100 billion-plus lunar program, though it’s possible more is currently being spent in opaque budgets. 

As China ramps up its lunar program, funding will need to balloon alongside of it, possibly mixing with much larger military budgets. 

ILRS VS. ARTEMIS

China cemented its lunar goals in June 2021, when it formed the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The goal of the ILRS program is similar to Artemis: to build a permanent scientific base on the moon.

Beijing has tapped Russia as its key partner for the effort. However, with Russia occupied by its war efforts, set back by sanctions, and generally limited by a smaller gross domestic product, China has taken the lead on ILRS funding and program direction.

The South China Morning Post reported that China and Russia have thus far secured ILRS cooperation agreements or letters of intent with the following nations:

  • Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (consisting of eight Asian nations)
  • Argentina
  • Pakistan
  • Brazil
  • United Arab Emirates, which is also a signee of the Artemis Accords

The agreements may be more ceremonial in nature, as no financial commitments or technology transfers have been announced.

LUNAR AMBITIONS

China’s interest in the moon holds potential economic, military, and reputation benefits for Beijing.

  • Economic: China believes the cislunar economy will grow to $10 trillion per year by 2050. 
  • Military: The Chinese Communist Party is focused on counteracting U.S. space dominance and its rising Space Force budget. 
  • Reputation: Chinese President Xi Jinping is eager to establish the nation as a leader in space and science. 

“There is a prestige factor involved. Going to the moon would be a big feather in China’s cap,” Pollpeter says. “This is a way for them to demonstrate themselves on the world stage.”

China’s play at the moon has gotten the attention of top U.S. officials at NASA, the Department of Defense, and on Capitol Hill. “We are in a space race with China,” NASA chief Bill Nelson testified at a Senate hearing on the space agency’s FY24 budget. 

TECHNICAL MILESTONES

The Artemis program is a number of years ahead of China’s lunar timeline. The U.S. has already launched its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, begun testing its Starship lunar lander, and commenced construction on a Lunar Gateway. 

China, on the other hand, faces numerous technical hurdles in landing on the moon. While China has released a slew of technical mock-ups of spacecraft and station designs, they remain in the early stages of engineering and testing. 

China May Not Need Western Technology Much Longer

source: Bloomberg.com, contributed by Artemus FAN Bill Amshey & Founder Bob Wallace  |  Image:  pexels.com

 

The latest ranking of global spending on research and development has US tech companies on top and Chinese rivals on the rise.

Western countries have become increasingly wary of sharing technology with China, with the US and Netherlands recently imposing new restrictions on exports of semiconductors and the equipment used to make them. Meanwhile, Chinese companies are rising up the list of the world’s biggest spenders on research and development — a sign that perhaps they won’t need that Western technology much longer.

When I last compiled one of these lists five years ago, mobile infrastructure and device maker Huawei Investment & Holding Co. was in sixth place behind Microsoft, just as it is here, but it was the only Chinese company in the global top 25. It has been joined by TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., WeChat owner and gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and e-commerce, payments and cloud-computing purveyor Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The $14.6 billion figure for ByteDance is for 2021 and comes from a report the privately held company shared with employees last year, which the Wall Street Journal reported on in October. The Information reported on April 1 that ByteDance has told investors revenue rose 30% in 2022, so I would guess its 2022 R&D spending would rank even higher.

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Russia Braces For Attack By 50,000 Ukrainian Kamikaze Drones, Seeks Shotguns

source: forbes.com (contributed by FAN Steve Jones)  |  image: pexels.com

Russian social media on the Ukraine war is buzzing with fear of an imminent attack by thousands of small kamikaze drones that could overwhelm their front lines.

Posts by a blogger using the handle Russian Engineer usually get a few thousand views, but one of his latest entries has now been seen 1.9 million times. Ukrainian military and political observer Alexei Arestovich says they are preparing a drone offensive,and in January Ukrainian General Command announced the formation of new tactical drone assault units. Russian Engineer has put these together with information from other sources to predict an onslaught of miniature attack drones.

Recently, it has become known that, in terms of drones, buyers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have bought up almost the entire market of FPV drone components in China, according to indirect estimates, by 50-100 thousand units,” writes Russian Engineer. “They have already trained more than a thousand operators of these models. They make them into kamikaze with a shaped charge warhead from RPG RPG -0.2%-7, or with a fragmentation grenade. And they have accumulated all this before the offensive.”

Racing drones, also known as FPV or First Person View drones, are smaller than standard quadcopters but have powerful motors giving speeds of 120 mph or more. They lack the sophisticated electronics for steady hover and smooth flight for good camerawork. Instead they are designed for high-speed, seat-of-the-pants flying around demanding courses, piloted using video gogglesDrone racing is a popular sport in many countries.

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China’s Top Airship Scientist Promoted Program to Watch the World From Above

source: nytimes.com, contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Corporate records and media reports reveal an airship scientist at the center of China’s high-altitude balloon program. Companies he has founded were among those targeted by Washington.

In 2019, years before a hulking high-altitude Chinese balloon floated across the United States and caused widespread alarm, one of China’s top aeronautics scientists made a proud announcement that received little attention back then: His team had launched an airship more than 60,000 feet into the air and sent it sailing around most of the globe, including across North America.

The scientist, Wu Zhe, told a state-run news outlet at the time that the “Cloud Chaser” airship was a milestone in his vision of populating the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere with steerable balloons that could be used to provide early warnings of natural disasters, monitor pollution or carry out airborne surveillance.

“Look, there’s America,” Professor Wu said in an accompanying video, pointing on a computer screen to a red line that appeared to trace the airship’s path across Asia, northern Africa, and near the southern edge of the United States. By the time of the report, it was over the Pacific Ocean.

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Divided in the Face of Defeat: The Schism Forming in the Russian Elite

source: indiandefencereview.com, contributed by FAN Bill Amshey  |  image: pexels.com

 

Russia is heading toward a final battle between the radicals, for whom escalation is a way of life, and the realists, who understand that continuing to up the ante could lead to their country’s collapse.

 

There was already talk of a possible split within the Russian elite two months ago, after Russia’s hurried retreat from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Since then, Russian troops have also been forced to withdraw from the key city of Kherson, and the predicted schism is taking shape. Members of the elite are dividing into relative realists who are calling for a tactical pause in the fighting in order to rethink Russia’s goals, and those who advocate remorseless escalation at any price. 

Never before have Putin’s strategic decisions—generally seen as the price of stability—pushed the Russian elites to the brink of a divide. They put up little resistance to the evisceration of the oligarchs, the rise of the siloviki (security services), and the 2008 Georgian war, while the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 was positively welcomed by many.

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