Assessing China's ASAT program

Desmond Ball of the Australian National University discusses China's anti-satellite (ASAT) test of 11 January 2007, and outlines the history of US and Russian anti-satellite testing. Ball provides detailed account of the current Chinese programme, and the vulnerabilities of different satellite constellations to kinetic energy, laser, and radio frequency weapons. The Chinese test, writes Ball,"involved a fairly primitive system. It is the sort of capability available to any country with a store of MRBMs/IRBMs (medium range/inter-continental ballistic missiles) or satellite launch vehicles, and a long-range radar system, such as Japan, India, Pakistan, Iran and even North Korea. American satellites are lucrative targets in the Chinese strategy of asymmetric warfare." Ball concludes by noting that, "China has been a prominent advocate of the 'prevention of an arms race in outer space' (PAROS). In one move, albeit fairly primitive, it has provided a major stimulus to such a race."