China recently
carried out a flight test of a new anti-satellite missile that highlights the growing threat of Beijing's space warfare capabilities.
The flight test of the Dong Neng-3 direct ascent missile was tracked by U.S. intelligence agencies on July 23 from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia, in northwestern China, said U.S. defense officials familiar with reports of the launch.
The officials said the launch was not successful and the DN-3 appeared to malfunction in the upper atmosphere after the launch at night
The launch took place after Chinese authorities posted a notice to airlines to avoid flying near the flight path of the missile. The missile's flight was captured in photographs and video by several Chinese internet users near the Jiuquan facility.
Despite the failure, China's space warfare program is said to be advancing rapidly as an asymmetric warfare weapon that will allow a less capable Chinese military to defeat the U.S. military in a future conflict.
The Pentagon's annual report on the Chinese military states that in December the Chinese created a new
Strategic Support Force that will unify space, cyber, and electronic warfare capabilities.
"The PLA continues to strengthen its military space capabilities despite its public stance against the militarization of space, " the report said.
Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command and a space warfare expert, said both China and Russia are advancing space-war fighting capabilities.
"China right now is ahead of Russia because they've been on a consistent path for a longer time,"
Hyten said in an interview in Omaha last week
Hyten said the U.S. military currently has a "very robust space capability."
"And the threats that we face are actually very small," he said.
However, the significant U.S. advantage in space is eroding and satellites are becoming more vulnerable to attack.
"We have very old space capabilities too, very effective space capabilities, but they are very old and not built for a contested environment," he said.
The space warfare threat is "a much nearer-term issue for the commander after me, and for the commander after that person, it will be more significant because the gap is narrowing quickly and we have got to move quickly to respond to it," Hyten said.
In addition to several direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles,
China is developing ground-based lasers that can blind or damage orbiting satellites, as well as small robot satellites that can maneuver, grab, and destroy orbiting satellites
The U.S. military does not have a deployed anti-satellite missile. However, in 2008 the military used a modified SM-3 anti-missile interceptor to shoot down a falling intelligence satellite as it reentered the atmosphere. The operation, code-named Burnt Frost, showed that the Pentagon could rapidly retool for anti-satellite warfare. The operation came a year after China's major anti-satellite test on the weather satellites.
The Air Force also developed the ASM-135 during the 1980s. The anti-satellite missile was launched from an F-15 jet.
Congress banned anti-satellite missile tests against targets in space in 1985.
Michael J. Listner, a space expert, said the latest DN-3 test shows China is developing space weaponry while pursuing soft power initiatives aimed at banning such arms.
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"It's unclear when such a system will become operational, but the question remains once its ASAT reaches operational capability whether current strategies to ‘deter' the use of ASATs will be effective, to include the idea of resilience to discourage interference," said Listner, head of the company Space Law and Policy Solutions.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-carries-flight-test-anti-satellite-missile/
"It is clear like the situation in the South China Sea that China's intentions for outer space should be gauged by their actions, including the continued development of ASATs, and not their propaganda."
Rick Fisher, senior fellow in Asian military affairs at the International Assessm
