China's Space Threat: How Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites

[Ryan Ruck]

China's Space Threat: How Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites

At 5:28 PM EST on Jan. 11, 2007, a satellite arced over southern China. It was small — just 6 ft. long — a tiny object in the heavens, steadily bleeping its location to ground stations below, just as it had every day for the past seven years. And then it was gone, transformed into a cloud of debris hurtling at nearly 16,000 mph along the main thoroughfare used by orbiting spacecraft.

It was not the start of the world's first war in space, but it could have been. It was just a test: The satellite was a defunct Chinese weather spacecraft. And the country that destroyed it was China. According to reports, a mobile launcher at the Songlin test facility near Xichang, in Sichuan province, lofted a multistage solid-fuel missile topped with a kinetic kill vehicle. Traveling nearly 18,000 mph, the kill vehicle intercepted the sat and — boom — obliterated it. "It was almost just a dead-reckoning flight with little control over the intercept path," says Phillip S. Clark, an independent British authority who has written widely on the Chinese and Russian space programs.

For China, a nation that has already sent humans into space and developed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the technology involved in the test was hardly remarkable. But as a demonstration of a rising military posture, it was a surprisingly aggressive act, especially since China has long pushed for an international treaty banning space weapons. "The move was a dangerous step toward the abyss of weaponizing space," says Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, an independent defense research group in Washington, D.C. "China held the moral high ground about space, and that test re-energized the China hawks in Congress. If we're not careful, space could become the new Wild West. You don't just go and blow things up there." In fact, after the Chinese test, India publicly stepped up its development of anti-satellite technology. And some Israeli officials have argued that, given China's record of selling missile technology to Iran, Israel should develop its own program.

INTERNATIONAL THREAT

For many countries, the most disturbing aspect of the test was not the potentially destabilizing sat kill, but the resulting debris, which poses a serious threat to every satellite in orbit, as well as to the International Space Station. "Space debris is a huge problem," says Laura Grego, staff scientist in the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "A 1-centimeter object is very hard to track but can do considerable damage if it collides with any spacecraft at a high rate of speed." Think of a shotgun pellet traveling at 10 times the speed of a bullet, smashing into a device built to be as light as possible. And then consider that China's anti-satellite (ASAT) test produced as many as 35,000 of these pellets, or pieces of debris, in the 1-cm range. Nearly 1500 pieces were 10 cm and larger.

Although the United States knew that China was planning to test ASAT technology, administration officials — reluctant to disclose the level of U.S. surveillance — chose to say nothing. China failed two or three times before successfully launching the missile in January. All the attempts were observed by the U.S. Air Force satellite system known as the Defense Support Program. Infrared telescopes on these 33-ft.-high defense satellites can spot the plumes from rockets launched anywhere on Earth.

AMERICA'S OWN SAT KILLS

Every industrialized country relies on satellites every day, for everything from computer networking technology to telecommunications, navigation, weather prediction, television and radio. This makes satellites especially vulnerable targets. Imagine the U.S. military suddenly without guidance for its soldiers and weapons systems, and its civilians without storm warnings or telephones.

Some satellites, however, are at greater risk than others. Most spacecraft — including spy sats — are in low Earth orbit, which stretches 1240 miles into space. As the Chinese test proved, such targets could be hit with medium-range missiles tipped with crude kill devices. GPS satellites are far higher, orbiting at about 12,600 miles. Many communications sats are in the 22,000-mile range. Destroying them requires a much more powerful and sophisticated long-range ballistic missile — yet it can be done. "You'd need a sky-sweeping capability to comprehensively negate a space support system that is scattered all over," says John Pike, a space analyst at GlobalSecurity.org. "You'd need ICBM-size boosters — hundreds of them."

Such an all-out satellite war would render space useless for decades to come. "There'd be so much debris up there," Clark says, "that it wouldn't be safe to put anything up in space."

The United States and Russia, the two countries with proven ASAT capabilities, have long steered clear of satellites as military targets. Even during the Cold War spy sats were hands-off; the consequences of destroying them were greater than those of unwelcome surveillance. "The consensus," Clark says, "was that anybody could look at anybody else."

Nevertheless, the U.S. military has spent decades designing weapons capable of killing other countries' satellites. The crudest American ASAT test, code-named Starfish Prime, took place in 1962, when the U.S. Air Force detonated a 1.4-megaton nuclear weapon at an altitude of 250 miles. The explosion, which occurred about 800 miles west of Hawaii, disabled at least six U.S. and foreign satellites — roughly a third of the world's low Earth orbit total. The resulting electromagnetic pulse knocked out 300 streetlights in Oahu. Clearly, nukes worked as ASAT weapons, but far too indiscriminately.

To develop a more surgical capability, the Air Force launched Project Mudflap, which was designed to destroy individual Soviet satellites with missiles. But inaccurate space-guidance systems plagued early tests. Then, on May 23, 1963, the Air Force pulled off a successful intercept with a modified Nike-Zeus ballistic missile launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It took out a rendezvous and docking target for NASA's Gemini missions at an altitude of 150 miles.

Over the next several decades the Air Force graduated to more sophisticated air-launched missiles that could hit targets with far better accuracy. In 1985 the United States destroyed an American solar observation satellite using a three-stage, heat-seeking miniature vehicle fired from an F-15 fighter jet. That test, like the Chinese one earlier this year, used a kinetic kill vehicle that spewed debris into space. Funding for the program was cancelled before the air-launched system could be perfected.

That same year, at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the Air Force began operating the powerful Mid-Infrared Chemical Laser. In 1997, it was used to temporarily blind sensors on an Air Force missile-launch and tracking satellite. The sat remained intact; no debris was created. And no laser tests have been conducted since. However, the current federal budget includes funding for a laser to be fired at a low Earth orbit sat from the Starfire Optical Range at Kirtland Air Force Base, in New Mexico, later this year.

Some $400 million has been spent in recent years to develop another sophisticated kill vehicle — a three-stage missile that smacks an enemy's craft with a sheet of Mylar plastic, disabling it without producing any debris. It has yet to be fully tested, and would only work on satellites in low Earth orbit; communication and GPS sats are too high.

Destroying an adversary's satellites has far-reaching implications. Do you take out only military sats or so-called civilian ones, too? Nearly every satellite has dual uses: A civilian weather satellite used for tracking hurricanes also could watch military movements. Many satellites are used by multiple nations. And once a nation disables an adversary's satellites, it puts its own in peril. As Charles Vick, a senior analyst at Global*Security says, "It's an act of war."

SENDING A MESSAGE

So why did China risk provoking international hostility? The country's government has been opaque. "The experiment is not targeted at any other country," said a foreign ministry spokeswoman in Beijing.

Some experts think at least part of China's motivation lies in an unclassified 2006 U.S. report on the future of military activities in space. The document reaffirms that "The United States considers space capabilities ... vital to its national interests. Consistent with this policy, the United States will: preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so ... and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."

The United States "basically said it has the right to restrict the use of space to only its allies," Clark says. Adds Jeffrey G. Lewis, an arms control expert at the New America Foundation: "Much of the world was appalled at the tone of the policy. One British newspaper columnist basically said it made space the 51st state."

In that context, some experts say, the Chinese test was an effort to force the issue, to show the United States the potential consequences of refusing to negotiate a favorable treaty on the military use of space. "The U.S. was restricting all these arms treaties," says Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow in security studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank. "For the Chinese, [the test] was an effort to deal from a position of strength."

Pike believes China may have another rationale for flexing its space muscle: Taiwan. China has long yearned to reabsorb the breakaway island state, which the United States has pledged to defend. In the short term, Pike says, China has only two strategies that could lead to a Taiwan takeover. It could bluff the U.S. in a nuclear confrontation, or it could try something altogether different: Fire medium-range missiles from mobile launchers, just as it did in the January test, and take out America's low-flying imaging satellites. Doing so might blind U.S. military planners long enough for Chinese military forces to gain a foothold on the island.

"The Chinese stage these big amphibious exercises off Taiwan all the time. One day, maybe it'll be real," Pike says. "Either the U.S. will get there quickly enough to stop them or the Chinese will win the race and there won't be the American political resolve to kick them out. All the Chinese would need is time." A half-dozen sats, Pike says — that's all it would take. "Those satellites are low-hanging fruit. It's a no-brainer."

In that scenario, the ASAT test was not really about China showing the United States its capability. It was about China confirming that its own war plan is feasible.

AMERICA'S TRUMP CARD

The long-term ramifications of the test will take years to play out, but, for now, few observers think China scored any gains. "It was a mistake," O'Hanlon says. It fueled American hard-liners who want to restrict American technological cooperation with China. And, "It doesn't help China's case saying it isn't a threatening military power," Vick says. "It is a threat, and the test showed that." Whether the United States suddenly accelerates its ASAT capability beyond the testing phase remains to be seen. The country is in the midst of a war; budgets are already tight. Russia is not perceived as a threat and China has only 60 satellites — few of these are worth shooting down.

America's most robust ASAT weapons were not designed for destroying satellites at all — they are missiles developed and operated by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), formerly known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. All U.S. ballistic missiles are actually dual-use, and while their ability to shoot down incoming rockets has been proven only in tests, it would be easy to direct them against any low Earth orbit satellite. Twenty-four MDA missiles are operational in Alaska and California, far more than would be needed, Pike says, to handle any immediate ASAT needs. There is, he says, "just nothing to shoot at."

For now, that is. The militarization of space has long been debated. With one blown-up old weather satellite, China has made the prospect of a new arms race far more likely. It showed the world that it is willing to go toe-to-toe up in the final frontier.

[vector7]

U.S. warns on China cyber, anti-satellite capability










Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (L) and China's President Hu Jintao (R) meet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing January 11, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

By Phil Stewart
TOKYO | Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:21pm EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Advances by China's military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare technology could challenge the ability of U.S. forces to operate in the Pacific, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday during a visit to Japan.

Just days after meetings in China meant to bolster ties with its military, Gates renewed concerns about a buildup by the People's Liberation Army, which flexed its muscle this week with its first-ever test flight of a stealth fighter jet.

China also plans to develop aircraft carriers, anti-satellite missiles and other advanced systems which have alarmed the region and the United States, the dominant military power in the Pacific.

"Questions about (China's) intentions and opaque military modernization program have been a source of concern to its neighbors," Gates said, addressing university students in Tokyo.

The comments were part of a broad speech drawing attention to the importance of U.S. military ties with Japan, where roughly 49,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed. Without the forward presence of U.S. troops in Japan, China "might behave more assertively toward its neighbors", he said.

Gates cited a territorial dispute between Japan and China that flared up last year, calling it an example of why the U.S. alliance with Japan was so important.

"Questions about China's growing role in the region manifest themselves in territorial disputes, most recently in the incident in September near the Senkaku Islands," Gates said, using the Japanese name for them.

In China they are called the Diaoyu islands.

Still, Gates said he did not see China as an "inevitable strategic adversary".

President Hu Jintao will visit the United States next week, and Gates noted that Hu and U.S. President Barack Obama had called on their militaries to strengthen ties -- one of the most brittle links in overall Sino-U.S. relations.

"It is precisely because we have questions about China's military -- just as they might have similar questions about the United States -- that I believe a healthy dialogue is needed," he said.

CYBER WARFARE?
Worry about China has convinced Japan of the need to repair an alliance frayed last year by a feud over a U.S. air base as well as efforts by Japan's Democratic Party-led government to forge a diplomatic stance less dependent on Washington.

In a sweeping update of its defense policies, Japan last month pledged tighter security ties with the United States.

Analysts say China's military advances appear designed to counter U.S. capabilities in the Pacific, despite assurances from Beijing that its modernization is peaceful.

Gates cited U.S. concerns about its cyber and space capabilities, specifically.

"Advances by the Chinese military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare poses a potential challenge to the ability of our forces to operate and communicate in this part of the Pacific," Gates said.

"Fortunately, (the) United States and Japan maintain a qualitative edge in satellite and computer technology."

Beijing carried out a watershed anti-satellite test in January 2007, using a ground-based missile to knock out one of its inactive weather satellites in high polar orbit. No advance notice of the test was given.

U.S. officials have also voiced concern about its investment in anti-ship missiles, which could challenge U.S. aircraft carriers in the Pacific.
Gates called for greater cooperation with Japan on missile defense, citing the North Korean threat.

"North Korea's ballistic missiles -- along with the proliferation of these weapons to other countries -- require a more effective alliance missile defense capability," he said, ahead of a trip to Seoul later on Friday.

He said the U.S. troops in Japan also were an important deterrent for North Korea following the sinking of a South Korean warship and the shelling of a South Korean island last year.

[American Patriot]

They will eventually drop a nuclear weapon there, and wait... wait... wait... use it. Boom. EMP

[vector7]

LEAKED: US and China in military standoff over space missiles

The United States threatened to take military action against China during a secret "star wars" arms race within the past few years, according to leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph.


By Tim Ross, Holly Watt and Christopher Hope 9:00PM GMT 02 Feb 2011 Comments

The two nuclear superpowers both shot down their own satellites using sophisticated missiles in separate show of strength, the files suggest.

The American Government was so incensed by Chinese actions in space that it privately warned Beijing it would face military action if it did not desist.

The Chinese carried out further tests as recently as last year, however, leading to further protests from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, secret documents show.

Beijing justified its actions by accusing the Americans of developing an “offensive” laser weapon system that would have the capability of destroying missiles before they left enemy territory.

The disclosures are contained in the latest documents obtained by the Wikileaks website, which have been released to The Telegraph. They detail the private fears of both superpowers as they sought mastery of the new military frontier.

The “star wars” arms race was began in January 2007 when China shocked the White House by shooting down one of its weather satellite 530 miles above the Earth.

The strike, which resulted in thousands of pieces of debris orbiting the earth, raised fears that the Chinese had the power to cause chaos by destroying US military and civilian satellites.
In February 2008, America launched its own “test” strike to destroy a malfunctioning American satellite, which demonstrated to the Chinese it also had the capability to strike in space.

America stated at the time that the strike was not a military test but a necessary mission to remove a faulty spy satellite.

The leaked documents appear to show its true intentions.

One month before the strike, the US criticised Beijing for launching its own “anti-satellite test”, noting: “The United States has not conducted an anti-satellite test since 1985.” In a formal diplomatic protest, officials working for Condoleezza Rice, the then secretary of state, told Beijing: “A Chinese attack on a satellite using a weapon launched by a ballistic missile threatens to destroy space systems that the United States and other nations use for commerce and national security. Destroying satellites endangers people.”

The warning continued: “Any purposeful interference with US space systems will be interpreted by the United States as an infringement of its rights and considered an escalation in a crisis or conflict.

“The United States reserves the right, consistent with the UN Charter and international law, to defend and protect its space systems with a wide range of options, from diplomatic to military.”

The Chinese strike in 2007 was highly controversial, prompting criticism from other nations and claims that it marked a revival of President Reagan’s “Star Wars” programme, that was abandoned in the 1980s.

A month after the Chinese strike, America shot down one of its own satellites, ostensibly to stop it returning to earth with a toxic fuel tank which would pose a health hazard. The Chinese did not believe the explanation.

In secret dispatches, US officials indicated that the strike was, in fact, military in nature.

Immediately after the US Navy missile destroyed the satellite, the American Embassy in China received “direct confirmation of the results of the anti-satellite test” from the US military command in the Pacific, according to a secret memo.

The strike marked the high point of tensions between Washington and Beijing over the issue of ballistic missile defence. The cables show that China was deeply concerned about America’s plans to place missile defence radars in Japan.

Another document discloses that the US was allegedly developing an “airborne laser system” to counter the threat from “Chinese military build up”.

The Chinese government was said to be “angry” about the US satellite exercise in February 2008.

For months after the US strike, the two countries engaged in tense talks over the issue.

At a summit on defence in June 2008, the American delegation told the Chinese that Washington did not regard China as “an enemy”. China replied that it saw the two powers “as neither allies nor adversaries”.

The Chinese assistant foreign minister complained that the US missile defence programme was not simply “defensive” but also “offensive” because “it includes lasers that attack a missile in launch phase over the sovereign territory of the launching country”.

The most recent cable in the collection was sent from the office of Mrs Clinton in January 2010.

It claimed that US intelligence detected that China had launched a fresh anti-satellite missile test. Crucially, Washington wanted to keep secret its knowledge that the missile test was linked to China’s previous space strikes.

The cable, marked “secret” said the Chinese army had sent an SC-19 missile that successfully destroyed a CSS-X-11 missile about 150 miles above the Earth.
“This test is assessed to have furthered both Chinese ASAT [anti-satellite] and ballistic missile defense technologies,” stated the memo to the US embassy in Beijing.

Mrs Clinton’s cable stressed that “the Obama administration” retained the Bush-era concerns over Chinese space weapon plans.

There is growing concern over the potential for nuclear states or terrorists to attack western countries using space. Last September, Dr Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, warned that rogue countries or terrorist groups could wipe out electronic systems by producing an electromagnetic pulse through a nuclear explosion high above the Earth.

On Wednesday night, a Pentagon spokesman said: "The President's June 2010 National Space Policy requires the Dept. of Defense (DoD) to have a range of options and capabilities. Our overriding objective is to promote the peaceful use of space.

"The United States did not engage our own satellite to test or demonstrate an anti-satellite (ASAT) capability. The purpose was to prevent the satellite's hydrazine fuel from causing potential harm to life on the ground.

"To conduct this engagement, we had to make modifications to three sea-based missile defense interceptors, three ships, and the system's command and control software.

"We have not made these modifications to any other missile defense system, nor do we plan to. Our missile defense systems are not intended or designed to engage satellites."

Today The Daily Telegraph publishes another 39 leaked cables on its website, bringing the total to 550 in three days.

[vector7]

US vs China in battle of the anti-satellite space weapons

On the night of Feb 20, 2008, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, was on a plane to Hawaii when his telephone rang.


The US and China shot their own satellites out of space

By Tim Ross and Holly Watt 9:00PM GMT 02 Feb 2011

It was a conference call from the Air Force General, Kevin Chilton, the head of US Strategic Command, and Marine General James Cartwright, the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

They told him the conditions were “ripe” to launch what can now be disclosed was a secret test of America’s anti-satellite weapons, Washington’s first such strike in space for 23 years. That night, the US navy’s Ticonderoga-class cruiser, USS Lake Erie, scored a direct hit on an American spy satellite, known as USA 193. The missile used, a highly sophisticated SM-3, took about three minutes to climb 150 miles above the Earth, where it flew past the satellite before turning back and destroying the target at an impact speed of 22,000mph.

The strike came about a year after the Chinese government had launched its own satellithe attack, which started a secret “space war”, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. For months the two super powers had been engaged in a private and increasingly acrimonious row over China’s use of weapons in space – an international taboo since President Ronald Reagan abandoned the “star wars” programme in the 1980s.

The clash began on Jan 11, 2007, when Beijing shocked the world – including George W Bush’s White House – by destroying a Chinese weather satellite with a ballistic missile.

The strike, 530 miles above the Earth, dramatically demonstrated China’s new ability to destroy the satellites of enemy nations. The threat was obvious. Without navigation or spy satellites, much of America’s military would be vulnerable.

Led by the White House, the West reacted with outrage. Leaked US embassy files disclose that Clark Randt, the American ambassador in Beijing, delivered a strongly worded protest to He Yefei, the Chinese assistant foreign minister, on Jan 15, 2007.

The documents show that the scale of American concern over the test was far greater in private than was admitted publicly. By January 2008, Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, raised the prospect of “military” action to protect American space systems. In a “secret” complaint to the Chinese, she said: “Any purposeful interference with US space systems will be interpreted by the United States as an infringement of its rights and considered an escalation in a crisis or conflict. The United States reserves the right, consistent with the UN Charter and international law, to defend and protect its space systems with a wide range of options, from diplomatic to military.”

Washington was particularly concerned about the 2,500 pieces of debris – and 100,000 smaller fragments – from the destroyed Chinese craft. Some of the pieces would remain in orbit around the Earth for the next 100 years and pose a risk to the US Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, Miss Rice said. She also pointed out that America had not tested an anti-satellite weapon since 1985. Just a month later this had changed.

In February 2008, Mr Gates – with the backing of Mr Bush – decided that diplomacy was not enough. The missile was fired.

In public, the Bush administration denied that the strike, which cost an estimated $30 million, was anything except a safety measure. A broken US spy satellite was falling towards the Earth and posed a risk to human health from its toxic fuel tank, officials said. Destroying the craft in space was the safest option, they claimed. Most satellites are left to burn out as they re-enter the atmosphere.

The leaked embassy cables disclose that Washington’s decision to shoot down spy satellite USA 193 caused private “anger” and anxiety in Beijing. The Chinese “repeatedly emphasised that the United States should provide information on the planned satellite interception prior to releasing the information to CNN”, according to a secret memo sent from the Beijing Embassy on Feb 22, 2008.

Crucially, the cable also confirms that the US government always appeared to regard the strike as a military “test”.

The file, marked “secret”, states: “On Feb 21 (Beijing time), Post received direct confirmation of the results of the anti-satellite test directly from PACOM [US Pacific command], and with Admiral Keating’s permission, Post immediately informed AFM [Assistant Foreign Minister] Liu Jieyi.”

In January 2010, American intelligence detected a fresh Chinese anti-satellite test. This time Beijing destroyed one of its own missiles, rather than a satellite, 150 miles above Earth. The Americans regarded the move as an “anti-satellite test”.

Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama’s newly installed Secretary of State, sent a fresh protest to the Chinese government, demanding to know: “What is the direction of China’s BMD [Ballistic Missile Defence] programme?”

The State Department told US diplomats in Beijing that the Obama administration shared President Bush’s fears over China’s plans. “US objections to China’s direct-ascent anti-satellite testing,” Mrs Clinton’s officials wrote, “are still valid and reflect the policy of the United States.”

[American Patriot]

The American Government was so incensed by Chinese actions in space that it privately warned Beijing it would face military action if it did not desist.

The Chinese carried out further tests as recently as last year, however, leading to further protests from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, secret documents show.

Beijing justified its actions by accusing the Americans of developing an “offensive” laser weapon system that would have the capability of destroying missiles before they left enemy territory.

I knew it. Told ya so.

[vector7]

China's Space Activities Raising U.S. Satellite Security Concerns

By Andrea Shalal-Esa/Reuters



January 14, 2013

The United States is concerned about China’s expanding ability to disrupt the most sensitive U.S. military and intelligence satellites, as Beijing pursues its expanded ambitions in space, according to multiple sources in the U.S. government and outside space experts.

A classified U.S. intelligence assessment completed late last year analyzed China’s increasing activities in space and mapped out the growing vulnerability of U.S. satellites that provide secure military communications, warn about enemy missile launches and provide precise targeting coordinates, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

“It was a very credible and sobering assessment that is now provoking a lot of activities in different quarters,” said one former government official who is familiar with U.S. national security satellite programs.

The intelligence report raised red flags about Beijing’s ability to disrupt satellites in higher orbits, which could put the most sensitive U.S. spacecraft at risk, according to the sources. China has already conducted several anti-satellite tests at lower orbital levels in recent years.

Given the heightened concerns, Washington is keeping a watchful eye on Chinese activities that could be used to disrupt U.S. satellites. It is also urging Beijing to avoid a repeat of its January 2007 test that created an enormous amount of “space junk,” said one senior defense official.

Details of the latest Chinese moves that have raised U.S. concerns remain classified.

U.S. officials charge that China’s anti-satellite activities are part of a major military modernization that has seen Beijing test two new stealth fighters; step up cyber attacks on foreign computer networks; and launch more commercial and military satellites in 2012 than the United States.

China still lags behind the United States in most military fields.

“What we’re seeing is a heightened sense in the United States that China is a potential threat and that it has the technology to be a threat if it wishes to,” said Jonathan McDowell, with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“As China becomes a space superpower, and given that it does have a significant military component to its space program, it is inevitable that the U.S. will be concerned about threats to its most valued satellite systems, whether or not China actually intends to deploy such aggressive systems,” he said.

CREATING SPACE DEBRIS

Six years ago, on January 11, 2007, China destroyed one of its own defunct weather satellites in low-earth orbit, which created over 10,000 pieces of debris that pose a threat to other spacecraft. A less-destructive test followed on January 11, 2010.

Space experts and U.S. officials say they expect China to continue testing anti-satellite technologies, although they doubt it would repeat the 2007 test, given the massive international outcry it triggered.

Gregory Kulacki, a respected researcher with the Union of Concerned Scientists, reported earlier this month on the group’s website that there was “a strong possibility” of a new anti-satellite test by China within the next few weeks.

He said Chinese sources had told him in November that an announcement about an upcoming anti-satellite test had been circulated within the Chinese government, and a high-ranking U.S. defense official confirmed in December that Washington was “very concerned” about an imminent Chinese anti-satellite test.

The Chinese Defense Ministry did not respond to emailed queries by Reuters’ Beijing office on the question.
The Pentagon said it was aware of reports predicting another test, but declined comment on what it called “intelligence matters.”

“We monitor carefully China’s military developments and urge China to exhibit greater transparency regarding its capabilities and intentions,” said Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush.

Sources within the U.S. government and outside experts said there was no immediate evidence pointing to the preparations for the type of satellite or rocket launches used by China for past anti-satellite tests at lower orbits.

But they said Beijing could test its anti-satellite weapons in other ways that would be harder to detect, such as by jamming a satellite’s signals from the ground or issuing a powerful electromagnetic pulse from one satellite to disable another.

China could also maneuver two satellites very close together at higher orbits, replicating actions it has already taken in lower orbits in August 2010 and November 2010. Such activities could be used to perform maintenance or test docking capabilities for human spaceflight, but could clearly be used for more destructive purposes as well, they said.

The United States has continued to test its own anti-satellite capabilities. In February 2008, a missile fired from a U.S. Navy cruiser in the north Pacific destroyed an ailing American satellite in orbit.

The U.S. government said the satellite’s toxic fuel posed a risk upon re-entry of the earth’s atmosphere.

Skeptics said the test was a message to China.

Any further anti-satellite test by China would be troubling, especially if it occurred at higher altitudes, said Bruce MacDonald, a former White House official who is now a senior director at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The United States operates its fleet of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites in medium earth orbit about 11,000 miles above the surface of the earth, while U.S. military communications and early missile warning satellites are located in geostationary orbit 22,000 miles above the equator.

Brian Weeden, technical adviser for the nonprofit Secure World Foundation and a former Air Force space and missile expert, said a Chinese anti-satellite test at those higher orbits would put U.S. satellites at risk.

“Some critical U.S. assets in that region have been assumed for the most part to be safe from those kind of attacks,” he said. “Such tests would signal that they’re not.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Another reason the SR-71 shouldn't have been retired, in my opinion. A solid backup to our satellite net.

[vector7]

Companion Threads:

• China's role on world stage is no cause for alarm, says Barack Obama
• President Obama will urge China to join US in ‘world leadership’
• Is China developing a beachhead inside the borders of America?
• Port of Los Angeles Security Falls Under Control of the PRC
• Idaho State's Businesses sold to China
• Obama has private meeting with China
• Chinese Trash Talk Second Amendment
• China buying up energy reserves in U.S.
• At Michigan Universities, Enrollment Of Chinese Students Is Soaring

Obama: Americans Have Been 'A Little Bit Lazy' Over The Past Few Decades

President blames America while running economy into the ground

Obama: "We Welcome China's Rise"

• 51 Comments
  

Barack Obama

China's rapid growth is often painted as a threat to American interests. But President Obama said today that the country's economic progress benefits the United States and opens the door to greater international stability and humanitarian progress.

"We welcome China's rise," Mr. Obama said at a press conference at the White House with Chinese President Hu Jintao. "I absolutely believe that China's peaceful rise is good for the world, and it's good for America."

[American Patriot]

Told ya this was coming.

I also said a couple of years back that a HEMP would be directed at us from Russia. Now... it will be China.

[vector7]

Russian Satellite Hit by Debris from Chinese Anti-Satellite Test

by Leonard David, SPACE.com’s Space Insider Columnist
Date: 08 March 2013 Time: 05:25 PM ET


A small Russian spacecraft in orbit appears to have been struck by Chinese space junk from a 2007 anti-satellite test, likely damaging the Russian craft, possibly severely, SPACE.com has learned.
The space collision appears to have occurred on Jan. 22, when a chunk of China's Fengyun 1C satellite, which was intentionally destroyed by that country in a 2007 anti-satellite demonstration, struck the Russian spacecraft, according to an analysis by the Center for Space Standards & Innovation (CSSI) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

CSSI technical program manager T.S. Kelso reported that the collision involved the Chinese space junk and Russia's small Ball Lens In The Space (BLITS) retroreflector satellite, a 17-pound (7.5 kilograms). The Fengyun 1C satellite debris was created during China's anti-satellite test on Jan. 11, 2007, and has posed a threat to satellites and crewed spacecraft ever since.

Evidence of the space junk collision was first reported on Feb. 4 by Russian scientists Vasiliy Yurasov and Andrey Nazarenko, both with the Institute for Precision Instrument Engineering (IPIE) in Moscow. They reported a "significant change" in the orbit of the BLITS satellite to the CSSI. [Watch the Animation: Russian Satellite Hit by Space Junk]

It is not immediately clear whether the satellite is merely wounded or completely incapacitated.
The space collision is the second substantial in-space accident between an active spacecraft and a defunct satellite or piece of space debris. In February 2009, a U.S. communications satellite was destroyed when it was hit by a defunct Russian military satellite, creating a vast debris cloud in orbit.

Tiny Russian satellite hit

and Russia's small Ball Lens In The Space (BLITS) retroreflector satellite is a 17-pound (7.5 kilograms) built for satellite laser ranging experiments. It launched in 2009 and was expected to last five years in space before it was struck by Chinese space junk on Jan. 22, 2013.

CREDIT: IPIE, NASAView full size image

The BLITS satellite is a nanosatellite consisting of two outer hemispheres made of a low-refraction-index glass, and an inner ball lens made of a high-refraction-index glass. It was launched in 2009 as a secondary payload on a Russian rocket and tracked by the International Laser Ranging Service for precision satellite laser-ranging experiments.

In addition to noticing the satellite's change in orbit, Yurasov and Nazarenko also detected changes in the spacecraft's spin velocity and attitude. [Worst Space Debris Events of All Time]
Satellite laser ranging use short-pulse lasers and state-of-the-art optical receivers and timing electronics to measure the two-way time of flight (and hence distance) from ground stations to retroreflector arrays on Earth orbiting satellites.

On Feb. 28, the International Laser Ranging Service confirmed that the BLITS nanosatellite had collided with a piece of space debris. "As a result, an abrupt change occurred of the BLITS orbit parameters (a decrease of the orbiting period)," ILRS officials explained.

Besides this, as could be seen from an SLR station photometrical observation results, the BLITS spin period had changed from 5.6 sec before collision to 2.1 sec after collision. The ILRS Central Bureau is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.



Known orbit planes of Fengyun-1C debris one month after its 2007 disintegration by a Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) interceptor. The white orbit represents the International Space Station.
CREDIT: NASA Orbital Debris Program OfficeView full size image

A change in orbits

The analysis by Russian scientists found that the orbital change on the BLITS satellite occurred on Jan. 22 at 2:57 a.m. EST (0757 GMT).

"They requested help in determining whether these changes might have been the result of a collision with another object in orbit," the CSSI's Kelso explained in a blog post.


Wipe out in the heavens: Last month China destroyed one of its own – an aging Fengyun-1C weather satellite – via an anti-satellite test.

CREDIT: Federation of American Scientists.View full size image

Starting from the hypothesis that an object capable of causing this change in the orbit of BLITS might be large enough to be tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, CSSI reviewed its own Satellite Orbital Conjunction Reports Assessing Threatening Encounters in Space, which is an archived database of potential space debris threats.

That review discovered only one close approach with another object, although it was supposed to be far apart, occurred for the BLITS satellite on Jan. 22.

"Although the predicted distance would seem to preclude a collision, the fact that the close approach occurred within 10 seconds of the estimated change in orbit made it appear likely that this piece of Fengyun 1C debris actually collided with BLITS," Kelso wrote.

The CSSI is continuing to work with Yurasov and Nazarenko to further assess the circumstances of this likely collision.

More review needed

Kelso told SPACE.com that he is trying to address technical questions on this event, such as whether the individual masses of the pieces can be determined to assess how big of a piece might have come off of BLITS satellite.

Kelso said that the U.S. military’s Joint Space Operations Center released on March 3 the first two-line element set (TLE) — a data format used to convey sets of orbital elements that describe the orbits of Earth-orbiting satellites — for debris associated with BLITS. That information further confirms CSSI’s analysis, Kelso said.

The threat of space debris to satellites and crewed spacecraft orbiting Earth has been a growing problem.

There are thought to be about 600,000 objects larger than 1 cm (0.39 inches) in diameter orbiting Earth, and at least 16,000 larger than 10 cm (3.9 inches), space debris trackers have said.

[American Patriot]

Very interesting....

[Ryan Ruck]

China Conducts Test of New Anti-Satellite Missile

Launch was disguised as a space-exploration rocket

Bill Gertz
May 14, 2013

China’s military on Monday conducted the first test of a new ground-launched anti-satellite missile that was fired into space and disguised as a space-exploration rocket, according to U.S. officials.

The test was carried out early Monday from the Xichang Space Launch center and was identified by officials as the new Dong Ning-2 ASAT missile.

The ASAT test comes a week after China protested the release of the Pentagon’s annual report on the Chinese military buildup that mentioned Beijing’s development of anti-satellite weapons.

The Free Beacon first disclosed the existence of the new missile in October and a missile researcher reported in January that a new ASAT missile was being readied for its first test.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was asked if China conducted an ASAT test during a briefing for reporters in Beijing on Tuesday. He did not deny that it was carried out.

“I am not aware of the development that you described,” he said. “China has consistently advocated the peaceful use of outer space and is opposed to militarizing and conducting an arms race in outer space.”

Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Wilkinson said: “We don’t have a comment on it as we don’t discuss intelligence.”

A U.S. official familiar with intelligence reports said the DN-2, as a high earth-orbit attack missile, is a significant advance for China’s program of developing asymmetric warfare capabilities for use against the United States. Others include cyber-warfare capabilities and anti-ship ballistic missiles.

It could not be learned if the latest ASAT test involved an impact with a target satellite.

A second official said the Chinese apparently disguised the ASAT missile test as a space exploration experiment. The website of the National Space Science Center, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported Monday that a sounding rocket was used in a high-altitude scientific exploration test.

“This experiment used a high-altitude space-exploring rocket, Langmuir probe, high-energetic particle detectors, magnetometers and barium-powder release experimental apparatus and other payload of scientific exploration to test and measure the ionosphere, the high-energy particles and magnetic fields of the near-Earth space strength and structure,” the notice said.

China in 2007 conducted its first successful hit-to-kill ASAT test against a weather satellite in low-earth orbit. The impact left tens of thousands of pieces of debris in orbit that continue to threaten both manned and unmanned spacecraft.

Defense officials have said China’s ASAT weapons, including missile interceptors, lasers, and electronic jammers, are designed to disrupt satellite communications and navigation systems used extensively by the U.S. military in conducting joint warfare.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stated in written answers to questions during his confirmation hearing in January that the United States would seek to avoid engaging in hostilities in space.

However, Hagel revealed that U.S. space policy calls for “the secretary of defense to develop capabilities, plans and options to deter, defend against, and, if necessary, defeat efforts to interfere with or attack U.S. or allied space systems.”

The statement was the clearest indication that the Pentagon is preparing to develop “counterspace” weapons in response to Chinese anti-satellite weapons.

“The chances are good this is indeed an ASAT test as it was launched from the Xichang Space Launch Center, the same launch site used for the January 2007 successful SC-19 ASAT interception of a Chinese weather satellite,” said Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. Xichang is located in southern Sichuan Province.

Fisher said Chinese Internet reports stated that the ASAT test of what U.S. official say was a DN-2 may have up to four stages and included one or two liquid-fueled upper stages to provide greater thrust as the missile closed in on a target.

“While there so far has been no report of a successful interception, even a very near miss would serve to validate this new [People’s Liberation Army] ASAT system,” Fisher said.

A validated DN-2 ASAT system would provide the Chinese military with the capability to “degrade or severely damage the U.S. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system,” he said.

“This is not merely a threat against some American military satellites, but a threat to a what has become a vital part of the global electronic infrastructure, affecting global commerce and financial flows, to your personal finances that contribute to personal freedom.”

Fisher said China has been “preaching” that other states should disarm while Beijing secretly builds space weaponry at the same time it has denied being engaged in the space arms buildup.

“In the face of such a threat, the United States simply has no choice but to pursue symmetric capabilities to deter Chinese attacks in space, but also to consider its own requirements for space superiority,” he said.

The major concern for Pentagon war planners is that China, with an arsenal of around two dozen anti-satellite missiles, could severely disrupt U.S. command-and-control systems, intelligence-gathering satellites, and navigation satellites used to guide precision guided missiles.

Security analyst Gregory Kulacki said in an online posting in January that the ASAT test was expected as early as that month.

“Given these high-level administration concerns and past Chinese practice, there seems to be a strong possibility China will conduct an ASAT test within the next few weeks,” Kulacki, a Chinese-language speaker with the Union of Concerned Scientists stated.

Defense officials disclosed to the Free Beacon that the DN-2 test was initially planned for last fall, but was delayed by the Chinese over concerns that the test would upset President Barack Obama’s reelection bid.

While details of the DN-2 are not known, U.S. officials said it is expected to be a high earth-orbit interceptor capable of destroying strategic navigation, communication, or intelligence satellites by ramming into them at high speeds.

The DN-2 is said to be capable of hitting targets in high-earth orbit between 12,000 and 22,236 miles above earth. Many military, intelligence, and commercial satellites orbit at that altitude.

A Pentagon-State Department report to Congress last year on export controls stated that in addition to ground-launched ASAT missiles, China is building high-technology kinetic and direct energy weapons for ASAT use.

[American Patriot]

Meanwhile, North Korea has announced the Witch Killer satellite - called the Ding Dong Bucket of Water sat.

[vector7]

Surprise Chinese Satellite Maneuvers Mystify Western Experts

Marcia S. Smith
Posted: 19-Aug-2013
Updated: 19-Aug-2013 05:37 PM



China is the midst of conducting unusual satellite maneuvers involving a new satellite launched last month and an older satellite in orbit for eight years. Exactly what capabilities the Chinese are demonstrating remains unclear to western analysts.

Alerted by a tweet from Hong Kong-based @cosmic_penguin, Bob Christy of zarya.info spread the word that one of three Chinese satellites launched together on July 19 made a sudden maneuver yesterday. The satellite, Shiyan 7 (SY-7, Experiment 7), already had completed a series of orbital changes that put it close to one of the companion satellites with which it was launched -- Chuangxin 3 (CX-3). Suddenly, however, it made a surprise rendezvous with a completely different satellite, Shijian 7 (SJ-7, Practice 7), launched in 2005.

Jonathan McDowell of Jonathan's Space Report characterizes SJ-7's own mission as "mysterious." Over the past eight years, it has changed its orbit several times followed by long periods of "quiescent decay." Its most recent orbit change was in January 2013 according to McDowell.

As for SY-7, it was launched last month along with CX-3 and Shijian-15 (SJ-15). China's Xinhua news service said at the time that all three satellites would be used to conduct "scientific experiments on space maintenance technologies." Christy reported soon after launch that "[i]t is known" that one of the three satellites carries "a prototype manipulator arm to capture other satellites" that might be "a predecessor of an arm destined to be aboard China's large space station set for launch in 2020 or soon thereafter." He could not confirm which of the three satellites carries that arm. McDowell said that SY-7 "is testing a robotic arm," while SJ-15 was thought to be observing space debris and CX-3 might be carrying "technology experiments and/or serve as a target for the robotic arm tests."

After a series of minor orbital adjustments, the first unexpected orbit change for SY-7 occurred on August 16 according to Christy, who said that it suddenly lowered its orbit by 150 kilometers. Christy's analysis at the time suggested that it was preparing to rendezvous with CX-3. Then, yesterday (August 18) it rendezvoused with SJ-7 instead.

Christy reports that as of this morning SY-7 and SJ-7 remain about 2 kilometers apart in a 565 x 610 kilometer orbit. Christy remarks that "[t]here are several possibilities for what looked like a space station rendezvous and docking simulation....satellite inspector, satellite servicing experiment, ASAT..?"

ASAT stands for antisatellite, a capability to render a satellite non-operational. China conducted an ASAT test in 2007 when it launched a satellite interceptor against one of its own satellites. The test was successful in that it destroyed the satellite, but the resulting cloud of more than 3,000 pieces of space debris in a heavily used part of Earth orbit resulted in international condemnation and spurred efforts to develop an internationally accepted code of conduct to ensure space sustainability.

Christy refers to the satellite as "Payload C" because the three satellites so far are designated only as A, B and C in the U.S. catalog of space objects (publicly available on SpaceTrack) rather than being identified by their official names. He adds that "the strongest indications are" that Payload A is SJ-15, Payload B is CX-3, and Payload C is SY-7.

[Ryan Ruck]

[American Patriot]

There is nothing unclear about this "mystery". We know precisely what they are doing. Exactly.

I can tell you - though there are several possibilities, the probabilities are very HIGH they are building and designing, as well as testing a maneuverable ASAT.

Secondarily, they are working to produce a satellite that can be "quietly" moved where they want it, and detonate it when they are ready, thus creating a massive EMP over the US, Europe or some perceived "enemy".

The Chinese have been working toward this since we pointed this crap out years ago.

For those who don't understand...

The following speech text was recorded and translated by Mr. John R. Rarick, Chairman of the U.S. Day Committee following de-briefing by U.S. Intelligence sources who corroborated its authenticity. (Why has this chilling warning not been debated on “Meet the Press” or any CNN show?? The consistent references by Chi Haotian to Nazi Germany’s model of race superiority should bechilling in the extreme to our modern sensibilities.)

“Comrades, I’m very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is
quite promising and our Party’s cause will be carried on. In answering thequestion, “Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war,” more
than 80 per cent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations.

Today I’d like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time, during which I started with a discussion of the issue of the three islands [Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands and the Spratley Islands --- Ott] and mentioned that 20 years of the idyllic theme of ‘peace and development’ had come to an end, and concluded that modernization under the saber is the only option for China’s next phase.

I also mentioned we have a vital stake overseas.The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people’s attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even non-combatants, they’ll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants.

Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war……..We wanted to know: If China’s global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries, will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it?

The fact is, our ‘development’ refers to the great revitalization of the Chinese nation, which, of course, is not limited to the land we have now but also includes the whole world. As everybody knows, according to the views propagated by the Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from one single mother in Africa. Therefore no race can claim racial superiority.

However, according to the research conducted by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa. Instead, we originated independently in the land of China. Therefore, we can rightfully assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years,and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years.

This is the Chinese nation that calls itself ‘descendants of Yan and Huang.’

During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific. We all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the centre of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours.

Later on, because of our complacency,narrow-mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the centre of the world shifted to the West.In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the centre of the world civilization shift back to China?

Actually, Comrade Liu Huaqing made similar points in early 1980’s Based on an historical analysis, he pointed out that the centre of world civilization is shifting. It shifted from the East to Western Europe and later to the United States; now it is shifting back to the East. Therefore, if we refer to the 19th Century as the British Century and the 20th century as the American Century, then the 21st Century will be the Chinese Century!! (Wild applause fills the auditorium.)

Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because,fundamentally, our race is superior to theirs. As a result, we have a longer history, more people, and larger land area. On this basis, our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity. It was Confucius, the founder of our Chinese culture, who gave us these heritages. These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined ‘not to be buried by either heaven or earth’ no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage.

Take response to war as an example.The reason that the United States remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its enemies aim at the mainland, the enemies would have already reached Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the president to declare war. But for us, we don’t waste time on these trivial things. Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us?

If the common people don’t believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, begin to question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China??

The first pressing issue facing us is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany’s back then.

In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil,water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then.

Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways,while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can’t be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.

Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes. It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It’s not that we haven’t paid attention to this issue. The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue.
But we must understand that the term ‘living space’ (lebenstraum) is tooclosely related to Nazi Germany.

The reason we don’t want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West’s association of us with Nazi Germany,which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xin’s new theory, ‘Human Rights are just living rights’ we only talk about ‘living’ but not ‘space’ so as to avoid using the term ‘living space.’ From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space.

To solve this problem, we must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they can develop outside of China.Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space? First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even Japan,how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization. Therefore, solving the ‘issue of America’ is the key to solving all other issues.

First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the White race. We the descendants of the Chinese nation are ENTITLED to the possession of the land!!!

It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight. In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle. Of course, right now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology. We still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country.

Only by using special means to ‘clean up’ America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves.There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of ‘cleaning up’ America all of a sudden.

When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focused instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country. Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place.

According to the computations of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of the population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who know how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go.

It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths, But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we’d have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party.

The last problem I want to talk about is of firmly seizing the preparations for military battle. The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved.

Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites.

Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society.
Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China’s century.” - See more at: http://www.libertynewsonline.com/art....AoxGiB2F.dpuf

[vector7]

China Launches new ASAT weapon into orbit

2013-08-26 – China’s military recently launched three small satellites into orbit as part of Beijing’s covert anti-satellite warfare program, according to a U.S. official.

The three satellites, launched July 20 by a Long March-4C launcher, were later detected conducting unusual maneuvers in space indicating the Chinese are preparing to conduct space warfare against satellites, said the official who is familiar with intelligence reports about the satellites.


Chinese Shijian-9 satellite

One of the satellites was equipped with an extension arm capable of attacking orbiting satellites that currently are vulnerable to both kinetic and electronic disruption.

“This is a real concern for U.S. national defense,” the official said. “The three are working in tandem and the one with the arm poses the most concern. This is part of a Chinese ‘Star Wars’ program.”

China’s 2007 test of an anti-satellite missile shocked U.S. military and intelligence leaders who realized the U.S. satellites, a key to conducting high-performance warfare, are vulnerable to attack. Officials have said China could cripple U.S. war-fighting efforts by knocking out a dozen satellites. Satellites are used for military command and control, precision weapons guidance, communications and intelligence-gathering.

The official discussed some aspects of the Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) program on condition of anonymity after some details were disclosed in online posts by space researchers.

“The retractable arm can be used for a number of things – to gouge, knock off course, or grab passing satellites,” the official said.
The three satellites also could perform maintenance or repairs on orbiting satellites, the official said.

Details of the small satellite activity were first reported last week in the blog “War is Boring.”

The posting stated that one of the satellites was monitored “moving all over the place” and appeared to make close-in passes with other orbiting satellites.

“It was so strange, space analysts wondered whether China was testing a new kind of space weapon — one that could intercept other satellites and more or less claw them to death,” the report said.

The U.S. official said: “It is exactly what was reported: An ASAT test.”

According to space researchers who tracked the satellites movements, one of the satellites on Aug. 16 lowered its orbit by about 93 miles. It then changed course and rendezvoused with a different satellite. The two satellites reportedly passed within 100 meters of each other.

One space researcher was quoted in the online report as saying one satellite was equipped with a “robot-manipulator arm developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.”

The Chinese appear to be testing their capability for intercepting and either damaging or destroying orbiting satellites by testing how close they can maneuver to a satellite, the U.S. official said.

“They are learning the tactics, techniques and processes needed for anti-satellite operations,” the official said.

The Chinese have given a code name to the satellites and numbered the satellites differently. The code name could not be learned. The official said the designation used in the blog, SY-7 was not correct.

A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment about the Chinese satellites.

The official said the Obama administration is keeping details of the Chinese anti-satellite warfare program secret as part of its policies designed to play down threats to U.S. national security.

“There is a Star Wars threat to our satellites,” the official. “But the official said the administration does not want the American people to know about it because it would require plusing up defense budgets.”

The use of satellites for space warfare appears to be a departure from past Chinese ASAT efforts. China faced international condemnation in 2007 for firing a missile that blasted a Chinese weather satellite in space, leaving tens of thousands of debris pieces.

A recently translated Chinese defense paper on the use of a kinetic energy anti-satellite missile revealed that China is making progress with its anti-satellite warfare program. The report reveals that a U.S. software program called Satellite Tool Kit is being used by the Chinese military for its ASAT program.

“Kinetic energy antisatellite warfare is a revolutionary new concept and a deterrent mode of operation,” the 2012 translation of the report stated. “The construction of the corresponding information flow is certainly important to the effectiveness of the kinetic energy antisatellite operation. The STK package, being a powerful professional space simulation platform, will play an active supporting role in research on information flow in kinetic energy antisatellite warfare.”

A joint State Department and Pentagon report on export controls published last year stated that China is working on several types of anti-satellite warfare systems.

“China continues to develop and refine its ASAT capabilities as one component of a multi-dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by potential adversaries during times of conflict,” the report said.

“In addition to the direct-ascent ASAT program, China is developing other technologies and concepts for kinetic and directed energy for ASAT missions.”

The report said China has said that to support its manned and lunar space program, it is “improving its ability to track and identify satellites—a prerequisite for effective, precise counter-space operations.”

“The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is acquiring a range of technologies to improve China’s space and counter-space capabilities,” the report said.

A recent PLA analysis concluded that space is the “commanding point” for the modern information battlefield.

“Battlefield monitor and control, information communications, navigation and position guidance all rely on satellites and other sensors,” and Chinese military writings emphasize, “destroying, damaging, and interfering with the enemy’s reconnaissance … and communications satellites.”

The military writings suggest that satellites could be part of an initial attack aimed at blinding the enemy. “Destroying or capturing satellites and other sensors … will deprive an opponent of initiative on the battlefield and [make it difficult] for them to bring their precision guided weapons into full play,” the PLA report said.

Rick Fisher, a Chinese military affairs specialist, said the maneuvering satellites are a significant element of China’s military space program.
The satellite with the robotic arm is a clear dual-use, military-civilian satellite, said Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

“The robot arm will develop a larger arm for China’s future space station, but this satellite can also perform ‘co-orbital’ surveillance or attacks against target satellites,” Fisher told the Free Beacon. “It is essentially China’s version of the 2007 DARPA Orbital Express satellite that was criticized by liberals as step toward ‘militarizing’ space.”

According to Fisher, the satellites are part of a space surveillance and targeting system that will monitor space debris and also allow interception of space targets.

Elements of the satellite system also will be used for China’s missile defense system, which is linked to China’s anti-satellite missiles.

“But despite any potential ‘peaceful’ uses, the main point for the United States is that the PLA owns these programs and will use them as weapons against American space assets when it so chooses,” Fisher said. “All future U.S. military satellites require low-cost stealth or defense capabilities if the U.S. is to keep its essential military space architecture.”

The space weapons program in China shows that no amount of American restraint will halt Beijing’s drive for military advantage in space.

“Today China’s dictatorship rejects all forms of strategic arms control that could deny the Communist Party a capability that it deems essential to the survival of its dictatorship,” Fisher said. “When China gains superiority in any strategic category it will be even less willing to bargain away capability for the sake of ‘stability.’ China will not ‘reward’ any future U.S. nuclear weapon reductions or restraint in developing space weapons.”

China also conducted a maneuvering small satellite test in 2010, according to defense officials, which also was deemed an ASAT-related experiment.

Two Chinese satellites rendezvoused several hundred miles above Earth in August 2010 as part of what was viewed by officials as a contribution to the anti-satellite weapons program.

The Pentagon said at the time, “Our analysts determined there are two Chinese satellites in close proximity of each other. We do not know if they have made physical contact. The Chinese have not contacted us regarding these satellites.”

The two satellites also maneuvered during the Aug. 22, 2010 encounter. Based on the behavior, it appeared one of the satellites made contact with another satellite causing it to change orbits. The two satellites were estimated to have been as close as 200 meters to each other.

[vector7]

China Testing New Space Weapons

October 2, 2013

Source: Free Beacon



China last week conducted a test of a maneuvering satellite that captured another satellite in space during what Pentagon officials say was a significant step forward for Beijing’s space warfare program.

The satellite capture took place last week and involved one of three small satellites fitted with a mechanical arm that were launched July 20 as part of a covert anti-satellite weapons development program, said U.S. officials familiar with reports of the test.
One official described the satellite-grabbing spacecraft as a “mobile satellite launch vehicle.”

A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the test. But Cynthia O. Smith, the spokeswoman, confirmed that the satellites, designated Payloads A, B, and C, have maneuvered in space since their launch.

“The United States Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Combatant Command for Space (JFCC-Space), consistent with its routine operations to maintain track of objects in space, has monitored these satellites since their launch and has noticed the relative motions of these satellites amongst each other and with respect to other space objects,” she said.

The Pentagon’s website Space-Track.org does not report on missions or functions of the hundreds of space objects it tracks, and Smith referred further questions to the Chinese government.

A Chinese Embassy spokesman did not return emails seeking comment on the ASAT test.

The satellites involved in the space warfare development program were identified by the Chinese as “scientific experimentation satellites,” according to a notice published July 24 in the online journal Space News.

They were identified as Chuangxin-3 (Innovation-3), Shiyan-7 (Experiment-7), and Shijian-15 (Practice-15). The spacecraft with the robotic mechanical arm that conducted the satellite capture experiment has not been authoritatively identified from among the three orbiters. However, space analysts suspect it is Shiyan-7.

Space News is published by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), which builds strategic missiles and space launchers, and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), China’s largest missile manufacturer.

The notice stated that the three satellites were launched atop a Long March-4C rocket on July 20 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north central China.

“These three satellites are to be used for the observation of space debris and conducting scientific experiments in space maintenance techniques like space arm operations,” the statement said.

Space Track continues to identify the satellites as by their payload designations, rather than using the Chinese names.

Space analyst Bob Christy, who writes the blog Zarya.info that first disclosed the three satellites, said no public information has indicated the three satellites involved in earlier close maneuvers engaged in a significant orbit change since activities in August.

“There have certainly been no more approaches between them, and Payload A has shown no sign of maneuvering in the whole of its time in space,” he said in an email.

Since no other satellites are in the same orbit as the three satellites and another satellite known as Shijian-7, “if the capture was last week, it didn’t involve any of these working together,” he said.

Christy said that leaves the possibility that Payload B was captured by Payload C during a close flyby around Aug. 17.

“My actual calculations showed them getting closer than 500 meters but given the inherent error margins of the Space Track data, I stuck with a few hundred meters,” he said.

Another possibility is that the test involved a detachable part of one satellite and its release into a separate orbit, and the subsequent recapturing of the component using the extension arm, Christy said.

“If the separation distance was small and the period of separated flight was short, then U.S. sensors are unlikely to have detected an extra object in orbit,” he said.

A third possibility is that the test involved completely different satellites that were not observed by non-government space trackers.
Christy’s analysis of the August activities revealed that the satellites conducted several experiments.

Since August, Payload C and Shijian-7 showed slight variations in orbit that are likely the result of thruster operation for position control, Christy stated in a recent blog post.

In August, Payload B, a non-maneuvering satellite, was positioned about 620 miles behind Payload C, a spacecraft that specialists say could be the craft with the manipulator arm, and Payload C gradually slowed to until is passed very close to the other satellite.

The robotic satellite may be part of efforts to develop China’s large space station set to be deployed around 2020.

However, Pentagon officials believe the small satellite activity is more closely associated with China’s secret ASAT program.

Little is known about the Chinese space warfare program, which is among the Chinese military’s most closely guarded secrets.

China conducted a direct ascent ASAT missile test in January 2007 that destroyed a Chinese weather satellite and created tens of thousands orbiting debris pieces that threaten both manned and unmanned spacecraft.

Chinese officials have told U.S. counterparts that the 2007 test was a one-time event and so far have not conducted further debris-causing satellite attack tests.

A U.S. official told the Free Beacon in August that the launch of the three satellites was part of Beijing’s covert anti-satellite warfare program.

The official said the craft with the robotic arm was viewed as the most threatening because U.S. satellites, vital strategic assets used by both the American military and civilian infrastructure, are vulnerable to kinetic or electronic disruption in space.

The official said the satellites are part of China’s “Star Wars” space weapon program that has been largely ignored by the Obama administration over concerns that pressing China to explain its space weapons would upset U.S.-China relations.

The ASAT program is a “real concern for U.S. national defense,” the official said.

Until the satellite capture, the mission of the spacecraft with the mechanical arm was unknown. It was thought that it could used to grab, gouge, or alter the orbits of other satellites.

The craft also could be used for maintenance and repair.

Rick Fisher, a Chinese military affairs specialist, said the robot-arm satellite that he believes is the Shiyan-7 is part of China’s dual-use space program that includes satellites for military close-surveillance and attack missions. Civilian applications include development of space manipulator arm technology.

“As an ASAT, a future version of the SY-7 could be used to take close-up images of U.S. satellites, to remove systems from those satellites and return them to China, to directly damage U.S. satellites or to plant ‘mines’ on those satellites or close nearby,” said Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

“An SY-7-like ASAT gives China the option to attack enemy satellites without creating a large cloud of debris that may also damage other Chinese satellites.”

Fisher said China recently hosted a major space conference and is seeking to position itself as a space “superpower” as a means to increase cooperation and technology acquisition from other countries.

At the conference, “Chinese officials made a deliberate appeal to Canada, which developed and built the manipulator arm used on the International Space Station and U.S. Space Shuttles,” Fisher said.

However, Fisher said China made every effort to conceal the People’s Liberation Army’s role in the space program and would probably deny any military role in the developing mechanical arm technology for offensive space operations.

“The ‘Canadarm’ [manipulator arm] was developed in Canada with Canadian funding and four were purchased by NASA for the U.S. Space Shuttle program,” he said.

China conducted a test launch of a new high-Earth orbit anti-satellite missile called the DN-2 in March, according to U.S. officials.

[Ryan Ruck]

Pentagon: Chinese Military Units Training With ASAT Missiles

China, Russia militarizing space to challenge U.S.

January 23, 2019

Chinese military forces have deployed multiple units armed with anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles that can destroy scores of American satellites, according to a Pentagon intelligence report.

The new report by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, known as NASIC, revealed that People's Liberation Army units have begun training with the satellite-killing missiles.

The report warns that China, along with Russia, has developed an array of space arms designed to challenge U.S. space superiority. The report was made public last month.

The report for first time reveals that Chinese military units already are conducting training for space attacks with anti-satellites missiles. Russia also is developing a new anti-satellite missile the report said.

"These missiles can destroy U.S. and allied space systems in low earth orbit, making intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communications satellites vulnerable," the report said.

The Air Force operates six constellations and 12 satellite systems regarded as vital to national security. They provide communications, command and control, missile warning, nuclear detonation detection, weather, and GPS for the world.

Foreign adversaries "are integrating advanced space and counterspace technologies into warfighting strategies to challenge U.S. superiority and position themselves as space powers," states.

"Multiple attack options—cyber, electronic, or directed-energy weapons; anti-satellite missiles; or space-based weapons—enable potential adversaries to achieve a range of damaging effects," the report said.

The missile type and PLA units engaged in ASAT training were not identified. However, defense officials have said with as few as two dozen ASAT missile strikes, China could cause major disruptions in U.S. military operations that are heavily dependent on satellites for communications, intelligence, and precision guidance for missiles and bombs.

China's ASAT missiles include several types with different ranges. The SC-19, a variant of the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile, was used in flight tests in 2007 and 2010. In 2013, China flight tested a new ASAT missile called the DN-2. In February, China flight tested a more capable DN-3, that was also tested in 2017, 2016, and 2015.

The ASAT missile training followed congressional testimony in February from Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats who said China's destructive anti-satellite weaponry would probably "reach initial operational capability in the next few years."

Coats also mentioned China had formed military units that carried out "initial operational training" with ground-launched ASAT missiles.

Rick Fisher, a China military expert, said the 25-page NASIC report, "Competing In Space," is important U.S. government confirmation that the PLA has progressed from a demonstrated ASAT weapon in January 2007, to multiple units equipped with ASAT missiles.

Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said since late 2015 all PLA ASAT missile units were placed under the new Strategic Support Force and its subordinate Space Force that likely controls the missiles and will also be in charge of future space-based weapons.

"While the PLA now has actual units of ASAT weapons targeting critical American military and civilian space assets, the United States does not have a similar organized counter-space capability," he said. "We are basically disarmed in the face of an active Chinese military-space capability."

Fisher blamed the Obama administration and former President Barack Obama who ideologically opposed the development of U.S. military space capabilities.

"America and its allies are very fortunate that President Trump has decided that the U.S. military requires a new Space Force," he said. "This is not an offensive or destabilizing initiative; it is now a necessary and defensive capability that is urgently required by the United States."

A Defense Intelligence Agency report on Chinese military power made public last week said China has not publicly acknowledged the existence of any new programs since a 2007 missile strike against an orbiting weather satellite.

"PLA writings emphasize the necessity of ‘destroying, damaging, and interfering with the enemy’s reconnaissance … and communications satellites,' suggesting that such systems, as well as navigation and early warning satellites, could be among the targets of attacks designed to ‘blind and deafen the enemy,'" the DIA report said.

The NASIC report is the first time the Pentagon has described in detail how a future conflict would be carried out in space.

Additionally, the report said the number of space satellites is growing rapidly from 100 several years ago to 300 today, making the domain congested and increasing the risk of collisions.

Both China and Russia are developing new space arms to achieve military goals. At the same time, Beijing and Moscow are promoting a ban on space weapons in an apparent bid to slow or prevent the United States from matching their space warfare systems.

"Despite publicly insisting that space is a peaceful domain, these competitors are in continuing development of several anti-satellite weapons," the report said.

China and Russia remain the most capable space warfare states but other nations also are expected to join the space arms race by building system to wage war against American satellites.

Russia's new ASAT was not identified. Other officials have identified it as the Nudol, suspected in a flight test in September.

"Through military reforms, China and Russia have organized new military forces devoted to the employment of space and counterspace capabilities and regularly integrate them into military exercises." Counterspace is the military's term for space warfare operations and weaponry.

Anti-U.S. governments in both China and Russia "continue to develop, test, and proliferate sophisticated anti-satellite weapons to hold U.S. and allied space assets at risk," the report said.

Directed energy weapons can produce temporary and permanent damage to satellites through focused radiofrequency or laser beams.

"Reversible effects include temporarily blinding optical sensors," the report said. "Non-reversible effects include permanently damaging or destroying sensors or other satellite components. Both China and Russia intend to field counterspace directed-energy weapons."

Chinese defense research over the past two decades has studied several types of directed energy space weapons and Russia is reportedly building an airborne laser that could be used to attack space-based missile defense sensors.

The Pentagon was building its own anti-missile airborne laser inside a Boeing-747 but the program was canceled by the Obama administration.

Reduced launch costs and proliferation of space systems will drive more countries to integrate space weapons into their militaries, the report warned. Terrorists also could use space to support attacks using intelligence, communications, and navigation space systems.

Among the emerging space-based anti-satellite threats the report identified a variety of arms. They include space-based interceptors to crash into satellites, complex space robots capable of grabbing or crushing satellites by maneuvering close by, and jammers, lasers, chemical sprayers, and microwave weapons.

Some states are developing sophisticated orbiting technologies for satellite maintenance and debris removal that could also be used to damage satellites covertly.

To support both military and civilian use of space, China has a fleet of 120 remote sensing and reconnaissance satellites, half operated by the People's Liberation Army.

The satellites allow the PLA to spy on regional rivals like India and Japan and flashpoints in Korea, Taiwan, and the East and South China Sea.

For communications, China is developing satellite systems for communications, including the world's first quantum communications satellite, with three others planned. Quantum communications are hardened against jamming or interception.

Both China and Russia also deployed navigation satellites to reduce reliance on the American Global Positioning System. The satellites are used for guiding precision weapons.

In 2017, Beijing began orbiting a next-generation BeiDou constellation of navigation satellites that offers text messaging and user tracking that "enable mass communications for specific BeiDou users and provide additional command and control capabilities for the Chinese military," the report said.

Russia also is maintaining and upgrading its fleet of GLONASS navigation satellites.

These alternatives to GPS could allow China and Russia to destroy GPS satellites during a future crisis or conflict, in what the report called "space denial."

The loss of GPS would impact police, firefighters, and paramedics and prevent rapid response to emergencies; news, long-distance telephone, satellite television, and internet service also would be unavailable. Retail stores and gas stations would be unable to communicate with banks to handle purchases and critical services "could be affected by weapons targeting our space services," the report said.

On space attacks, the report warned that a number of adversaries are building and proliferating a number of types of weapon that can disrupt or deny space services.

The range of potential space attacks include:

• Jamming global navigation and communications satellites used for command and control and naval, ground, and air forces, including drones.
• Weapons designed to target intelligence satellites would be designed to prevent locating, monitoring, and tracking enemy targets, like mobile missiles. Lasers can temporarily blind imagery satellites and other strategic sensors.
• Anti-satellites missiles can be used to shoot down satellites, like the Chinese missile test in 2007 that destroyed an orbiting weather satellite that created debris that will threaten other satellites for decades.
• China and Russia are using orbiting robot satellites that conduct sophisticated maneuvering near other satellites as part of space warfare capabilities.
• Adversaries plan to conduct physical attacks on satellite ground stations and infrastructure supporting space operations.
• Cyber attacks also can be carried out against satellites and support infrastructure.

The networks used to direct satellites and distribute their data are vulnerable to cyber attacks and electronic jamming can be used to disrupt both uplink and downlink signals.

Uplink jamming is aimed at signals going up to a satellite and must operate at the same radio frequency while downlink jamming targets blocking signals coming down to the ground station.

"China and Russia consider both offensive cyber capabilities and electronic warfare as key assets for maintaining military advantage," the report said. "As a result, both countries are researching and developing cyber capabilities and modernizing electronic warfare assets."

China and Russia also are using ground- and space-based sensors to search the skies for foreign satellites. The sensors are "first in a sequence of steps that a potential adversary will use to target satellites, launch counterspace weapons, and assess the effectiveness of an attack," the report said.

The space surveillance can also be used by militaries for denial and deception to hide sensitive military capabilities or ground operations.

Monitoring space threats is difficult for U.S. intelligence because adversaries are using dual-use civilian-military space systems that can appear benign but have hidden military and warfighting systems, such as robotic-arm satellites.

China has conducted tests of three small satellites including one with a robotic arm capable of grabbing nearby satellites. Russia also is testing small maneuvering satellites.