Someone asked, “How much is that?”

Henry said, “About the output for a really big TV antenna, or a small African nation. It’s a lot of power, and that’s just for one satellite. But we aren’t talking brute force here. This ARES, if I understand correctly, wouldn’t just help them grab a satellite with a high-powered dish on the ground. Am I right?”

David nodded. “Yes. You are. It’s a game-changer because the worm gets past the security systems and takes it over with a cyber-attack. You no longer need brute strength to hack into a satellite. They effectively steal our username and password and then replace it so we can’t regain control. And they aren’t just limited to one satellite at a time. They can scattershot multiple vehicles. If they developed the hardware that the U.S. Air Force and NSA have, they could theoretically take over all of our satellites in under 12 hours.”

Henry said, “Sweet. So just to be clear, total worst scenario imaginable. That’s all you need to say. Total worst scenario imaginable. Awesome.”

“There goes the US military’s communications and navigation advantage.”

“Christ...” said the military officer in the front row. “But wouldn’t people find out? I mean, who monitors this stuff?”

Brooke said, “Of course we’d find out. There are lots of agencies that monitor it. NORAD. The NSA. Langley. The National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Virginia. The point is, we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

Natesh said, “But China would probably wait until the right time to do this. What do you military guys call it? When you make sure you hit the enemy with everything you have at the same time?”

Major Combs said, “Simultaneous time on top.”

David began to feel dizzy as he saw where all of this was leading.

Natesh asked, “What would the damage be? What would it look like if China took out all of our satellites?”

Henry said, “It would put a strain on us at first, but the underwater and land-based fiber optic cables handle the vast majority of our data transfers. You might notice it on some international phone calls. Obviously satellite TV and satellite phones would be down. Eventually, though, it would get worse…”

“What about the loss of GPS? What would that do?” Natesh asked.

Bill said, “That would hurt a lot. There is just such a dependence on GPS today. Between that and the loss of weather satellites over the oceans, I wouldn’t be surprised to see global air traffic grind to a halt on day one. Ships and aircraft would have to navigate the old fashioned way, and that means slower and burning more fuel. Say goodbye to drones too. The US Air Force minted more drone pilots this year than regular pilots. If they were to take out satellites, we wouldn’t be able to use drones nearly as well. Probably not at all over long-range.”

Brooke said, “I think that would have a much bigger impact on the military’s ability to fight war than most people realize. Almost all of our weapons and weapons-delivery platforms rely on GPS navigation to precisely track and hit their targets. If you took out the entire global satellite network, that would be a huge technological equalizer.”