China Developing Counterspace Weapons: DoD Deputy

[bhagat]

China Developing Counterspace Weapons: DoD Deputy

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 4 Feb 2011 16:56

WASHINGTON - China is developing counterspace weapons that could shoot down satellites or jam signals, a Pentagon official said Feb. 4 as the United States unveiled a 10-year strategy for security in space.

"The investment China is putting into counterspace capabilities is a matter of concern to us," Deputy Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Gregory Schulte told reporters as the defense and intelligence communities released their 10-year National Security Space Strategy (NSSS).

The NSSS marks a huge shift from past practice, outlining a 10-year path for the United States to take in space to ensure it becomes "more resilient" and can defend its assets in a dramatically more crowded, competitive and challenging environment, Schulte said.

A key reason for developing the new strategy was "concern about the number of counterspace capabilities that are being developed," said Schulte.

"China is at the forefront of the development of those capabilities," he said.

China in 2007 shot down one of its own weather satellites using a medium-range ground missile, sparking international concern not only about how China weaponizing space, but also about the debris from the satellite that is still floating around in space.

Beijing is also working on ways to jam satellite signals and is developing directed energy weapons, which emit energy towards a target without firing a projectile, Schulte said.

U.S. concerns over China's space activities have led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to seek to include space in the stability dialogue with the Chinese, Schulte said

China Developing Counterspace Weapons: DoD Deputy - Defense News

 

[Dragon Emperor]

Great news, for China's military development.

 

[Bigoren]

well,i think only China can counter U.S in this counterspace weapon.

 

[applesauce]

hey the US started it with their researches decades ago and now this military space plane

 

[siegecrossbow]

Like I've explained many times before China will fall behind technologically if we don't develop such weapons. It doesn't mean that we developed the weapons with other countries in mind but if we are forced to use it at least we won't get slaughtered. Remember what happened in 1840 when China didn't have advanced weapons?

 

[applesauce]

Like I've explained many times before China will fall behind technologically if we don't develop such weapons. It doesn't mean that we developed the weapons with other countries in mind but if we are forced to use it at least we won't get slaughtered. Remember what happened in 1840 when China didn't have advanced weapons?

to be fair advanced weapons of that time were actually available, sure at the time china woulda had to buy them instead of building them but there were no export laws or sanctions at the time, order 100,000 machine gun(or ships or anything else) someone in Europe would have been happy to fill the order. the problem was the corruption and inability of the government to change, japan of the time managed to reform(ended up militaristic but not the point)

 

[QADRI]

Good going China.

 

[cross1993]

We are just to protect ourselves.

Chinese per capita military expenditure is only 65 dollars.
And America per capita military expenditure is 2350 dollars! The USA is 65 times that of China!

 

[below_freezing]

to be fair advanced weapons of that time were actually available, sure at the time china woulda had to buy them instead of building them but there were no export laws or sanctions at the time, order 100,000 machine gun(or ships or anything else) someone in Europe would have been happy to fill the order. the problem was the corruption and inability of the government to change, japan of the time managed to reform(ended up militaristic but not the point)

Good observation. Up to 1910, Japan still was dependent on europeans to build its weapons but they used those purchased weapons better than China did.

 

[S10]

"落后就要挨打"

"If you are technologically backwards, you are going to get beat on."

I think China learned that lesson from the Europeans and Japanese the hard way. It's good that they are finally pumping money into the military. I think in the last 30 years four events accelerated China domestic development of weapons.

- Sanctions after Tiananmen incident (Lesson in self-reliance)
- 1991 Gulf War (Lesson in modern warfare)
- 1996 Taiwan Strait (Lesson in importance of naval power)
- 1999 Serbia (Lesson in airpower)

Now that I think about it, United States is a good teacher.

 

[HongWu]

"落后就要挨打"

"If you are technologically backwards, you are going to get beat on."

I think China learned that lesson from the Europeans and Japanese the hard way. It's good that they are finally pumping money into the military. I think in the last 30 years four events accelerated China domestic development of weapons.

- Sanctions after Tiananmen incident (Lesson in self-reliance)
- 1991 Gulf War (Lesson in modern warfare)
- 1996 Taiwan Strait (Lesson in importance of naval power)
- 1999 Serbia (Lesson in airpower)

Now that I think about it, United States is a good teacher.

Ha.... with so many "lessons" taking place the US is not a teacher, it's a bloody university!

 

[applesauce]

Ha.... with so many "lessons" taking place the US is not a teacher, it's a bloody university!

haha i see what you did there