February 1, 2008: The U.S. Air Force is asking Congress for more money to defend U.S. military satellites from potential attack. This is largely in response to the Chinese test of an anti-satellite satellite last year. The air force wants more money for additional ground and space based sensors (radar, telescopes and electronic monitoring) to keep track of what's up there. This helps spot future launches of anti-satellite satellites. In addition, the air force wants to do more research on anti-jamming (of signals between ground stations and satellites), and installing additional anti-jamming technology. Finally, the air force wants to expand work on small replacement satellites. These can be launched via ICBMs, including those carried on navy nuclear subs.

No precise price has been put forward, mainly because getting all they want would cost over a hundred billion dollars. The air force is getting ready for some serious negotiations with Congress over what it will take to keep American satellites operational in wartime.