OPINION:
China is working steadily towards a capability to defeat U.S. satellite systems which are relied on heavily by the American military for for early warning, imagery, and communications. On October 30, a missile was test fired and is believed to have been an anti-satellite weapon, targeting the direct intercept of an orbiting device. It was the eighth time China has conducted such a test firing with the last instance coming in 2014. China denies it is testing anti-satellite weapons.
In 2007, China intentionally destroyed one of its own weather satellites which left tens of thousands of pieces of debris circling the earth, endangering all orbital vehicles from any nation.
The Washington Free Beacon reports the test of a Dong Neng-3 exoatmospheric vehicle was carried out Oct. 30 from China’s Korla Missile Test Complex in western China, said two defense officials familiar with reports of the test. The paper also quotes an upcoming Congressional report on space warfare, “China is pursuing a broad and robust array of counterspace capabilities, which includes direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles, co-orbital anti-satellite systems, computer network operations, ground-based satellite jammers, and directed energy weapons.”
China and Russia have tried many times to get the United States to agree to an unverifiable space treaty to limit space weapons while secretly pushing full steam ahead with weapons development projects of their own. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, on the deck of the U.S.S. Roosevelt, said last week that the United States is developing weapons and capabilities to counter any Chinese or Russian space weapon system advances.
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