China‘s military officials are deploying a vast network of satellites in orbit in an apparent preparation “to go to war and sustain a war,” according to a top U.S. Space Force intelligence officer.

“They’ve placed over 200 satellites in space [in each of the last two] years. Of that, over half of them are remote sensing satellites,” Space Force Maj. Gen. Gregory J. Gagnon, the deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, said Thursday. “An architecture that isn’t designed for efficiency and cost-effectiveness — an architecture that’s designed to go to war and sustain a war.”