While the President seemed skeptical, she could hear several of her counterparts breathe a sigh of relief. She smiled. It was nice to have such a vote of confidence in her abilities. Of course, her programs had already wreaked havoc in Russia, and the attack on the Indian transportation sector had sent that country’s economy into a tailspin. Her actions might very well be the impetus for the Indians to end the conflict with the Allies.
She continued, “At the beginning of the war with Russia and China, all sides went after each other’s military and spy satellites. They also went after the global GPS system with a DDoS attack, as you’ll recall, though that issue has largely been fixed. Within a week, the major global powers established a détente to leave the civilian satellite infrastructure alone; the interruption in the GPS system caused such an immense worldwide disruption that I think even the Russians and Chinese had to face how heavily dependent they had become on these systems. Once all parties realized that everything from transportation to logistics to weather had been affected, a compromise was put in place, and the agreement still stands today.
“All sides have done their best to move critical aspects of communications networks and other military functions onto the civilian satellite grid, surreptitiously coopting control of many of the satellites in certain cases. Everyone knew this was going on, so the Chinese went to work on devising a way around it. They couldn’t wipe out the civilian satellite grid without wiping out their own grid, so they found a way to do it without crippling themselves.”
She pulled up the slide of the newest UAV. “This little guy is called the Y’an, which translates to The Eye. The Chinese have been building these giant UAVs to act as a nationwide 5G umbrella to compensate for the inevitable loss of their civilian satellite network. While this new network won’t replace all of the satellites’ functions, it’ll provide them with consistent real-time ground surveillance and high-speed digital data and communications, ensuring their civilian population isn’t left in a data or communications blackout,” Katelyn explained.
The President held up a hand. “Excuse me if you will. What you’re saying is that at this juncture in the war, the Chinese are going to go after the global civilian satellite network in an effort to blind and cripple the Allies right before our major ground invasion?”
All eyes turned to look at her and Tom, who clearly knew more about this than anyone else in the room. Tom tipped his head toward her to take the question. “Yes, Mr. President, that’s what I’m saying,” she responded.
The President snorted. “So, if they can’t win, they’re going to make sure no one else does either,” he said, disgusted that the war was stooping down to a new low. It wasn’t enough to inflict the horrors of war on each other’s militaries, now they wanted to spread that discomfort to as much of the world’s population as possible.
Katelyn quickly brought up another briefing slide. “If I could, Mr. President, there’s more you need to know.”
He signaled for her to go on. He might as well rip the Band-Aid off rather than prolong the inevitable.
“Sir, this is going to be bad, but it’s not completely unexpected. We’ve known this was a possibility for nearly nine months, so we’ve been taking measures to prepare for it. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan was trying to tackle a major data communications problem of keeping the ground forces out on patrol in contact with their bases. The lack of infrastructure and the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan made it nearly impossible for our guys to transmit high volumes of data and maintain steady communications. The DoD came up a solution they termed ‘the last tactical mile,’ which utilized two systems to solve this problem.
“First, they placed 4G communications equipment on static aerostat blimps high above the bases, which provided a twenty-to-thirty-kilometer 4G bubble. They also explored ways of integrating 4G capability into UAVs that could be flown over the ground forces. Ironically, it was Facebook that took the latter program on and really ran with it. Mr. Zuckerberg had plans to leverage this kind of capability to bring Facebook to even the remotest parts of the world.
“When we first caught a whiff of the insidious Chinese plan to cripple the civilian satellite network, we reached out to several technology firms to discuss a plan B. SpaceX, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google all signed on to a classified program we established just six months ago. When the Chinese do begin to destroy the civilian satellite network, we have the ability to deploy aerostat blimps in 300 cities right now. That number will continue to increase by 50 cities a week at our current production scale. While this is still going to leave an enormous gap across the country, it won’t leave us completely blind. We’ve also been working with the broadband providers to be ready to pick up the data slack, which will be huge.
“For the military, SpaceX and Facebook have developed several drones that will be able to stay aloft continuously running on solar energy. That network will be able to provide 5G communications and data capability to our naval, air and ground forces in the war zones.”
She took a deep breath. “Mr. President, while the loss of the civilian satellite network will obviously hurt our economy, this development is actually going to be the key to defeating the Chinese.”
The President’s left eyebrow rose in incredulity. Several others leaned in closer, hanging on her every word.
“If I can, I want to give you a little background on this next piece. It’ll help you understand our plan better. During World War II, the Germans developed the Enigma cipher machine, which at the time was a foolproof communications system — at least until the British Navy was able to capture a German U-boat and seize an intact Enigma and the codebook. Once they had these two components, they were able to essentially read the entire German military communications system for the duration of the war, giving the Allies an enormous leg up.
“In our case, once we became aware of this Chinese program, we inserted a code into the firmware of a critical component used in the Y’an communication UAV. Once the Chinese activate the Y’ans and switch all their communications over from their encrypted satellite and radio systems to the 5G system on the UAVs, we’ll have complete access to their entire communications infrastructure. We’ll be able to see everything they’re transmitting on that network.” Her lips curled up in a devilish smile.
Someone in the room let out a low whistle. The President leaned forward in his chair and a smile spread across his face. “This is huge, Kate. You should’ve led with this. That said, I can’t help but wonder how this is going to impact things here at home. The level of chaos it’s going to cause when the satellite systems begin to go down isn’t something I’m even sure we can monetize, Tom.”
Foss turned to his NSA. “We’re going to have to have an emergency meeting with DHS, Treasury, and Commerce to see how bad this is going to be.”
McMillan scribbled a note on his paper. “Yes, Mr. President. I’ll make the calls as soon as we’re done here.”
Turning to face the SecDef, the President said, “Jim, I think this goes back to my original hesitation about the ground invasion. If we’re going to invade, then perhaps we should focus on going after the factories producing these new UAVs and the Chinese financial enclaves. In light of these new developments, my concerns about a wide-ranging ground war are only increased. What are your thoughts?”