WASHINGTON — China’s continued pursuits of space technologies as a way to gain military superiority are once again highlighted in the Pentagon’s latest annual report on “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.”
The congressionally mandated report, released Oct. 19, articulates why DoD considers the People’s Republic of China its “pacing challenge.”
While this year’s report does not contain major revelations, it underscores the Pentagon’s view of China as America’s top strategic competitor.
With regard to space, the report notes that China is closing once-wide gaps with U.S. space capabilities, increasing the possibility it could gain the advantage in a future conflict through attacks on American satellites. The Pentagon sees this as a major challenge.
Among China’s anti-satellite weapons that DoD worries about are ground-based missiles and high-power lasers, satellites with robotic arms able to grab other satellites, cyber-attack capabilities and other systems that could jam, blind, or disable U.S. satellites.
China views space superiority, the ability to control the space-enabled information sphere and to deny adversaries their own space-based information gathering and communication capabilities, as critical components to conduct modern “informatized warfare.”
The People’s Liberation Army continues to invest in improving its capabilities in space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, satellite communication, satellite navigation, and meteorology, as well as human spaceflight and robotic space exploration.
The PLA continues to acquire and develop a range of counter-space capabilities and related technologies, including kinetic-kill missiles, ground-based lasers, and orbiting space robots, as well as expanding space surveillance capabilities, which can monitor objects in space within their field of view and enable counter-space…
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