China's Growing Space Weapons Arsenal Threatens US Satellite Security As DIA Warns Of Anti-Satellite Missiles And Laser Warfare

Hong Kong: The Ukraine war has underscored the importance of space as a domain for warfighting. When the USA restricted access to Starshield, for example, it immediately curtailed the ability of Ukrainian forces to target their Russian adversary.

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Indeed, a competition is occurring right now for ascendancy in space, and China represents the greatest threat to space-based activities of the USA and its allies.

In late October 2026, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) published a 130-page report entitled Challenges to Security in Space. Its purpose was to “provide an unclassified overview of the threats within the space domain that jeopardise US and allied national defence”.

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This report was first published in 2019, with the next edition released in 2022. This therefore marks the third release of Challenges to Security in Space by the DIA.

In its preamble, the 2026 report stated, “China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are developing, testing, deploying and using space capabilities in a way that threatens the security of all space systems and their associated space benefits.

China and Russia are developing a formidable spectrum of offensive capabilities to degrade or destroy space services of other countries, from kinetic destruction to sophisticated jamming and cyber operations. These countries have exhibited behaviours that often run counter to a safe, secure and sustainable space domain.”

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The report clearly identified the so-called CRINK nations – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – as the main culprits. Furthermore, this quartet is intensifying and expanding its bilateral cooperation.

“The malign efforts of these four actors go beyond the development of novel technology and extend into the diplomatic and economic arenas,” the DIA assessed.

“China and Russia have proposed unverifiable international space treaties and commitments such as ‘no first placement of weapons in outer space’. Yet each refuses to acknowledge their ongoing efforts to develop dual-use and counterspace weaponry and their dangerous or ambiguous behaviour on-orbit.”

Indeed, China receives the lion’s share of attention in the report. The section on Beijing’s activities stretched to 22 pages, whereas Russia garnered just 14 pages.

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It is noteworthy that China’s entire space programme is managed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), with the Central Military Commission (CMC) having oversight of both the PLA and the China National Space Administration.

This contrasts with the USA, where military and civilian activities are separated into the Pentagon and NASA.

The DIA claimed: “Beijing aims to become the pre-eminent leader in space, to shape international norms to be more supportive of China’s positions on space issues, and exploit other nations’ perceived reliance on space-based systems to deter and counter China’s military operations. China’s rapidly expanding space programme is second in size only to the US space programme: military, civil and commercial.”

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China has more than tripled its annual tally of space launches in the past decade. The country was responsible for 22 launches in 2016, a figure that reached 93 in 2025.

That was a national record, and it included 25 commercial launches. By the same token, each launch now puts greater numbers of satellites into orbit on average.

In 2016, China deployed 40 satellites, but this figure had reached 384 by last year.

These satellites are used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); communications; weapon targeting; meteorology; oceanography; and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).

As of mid-2026, China had more than 510 ISR satellites, a quantity that has tripled since 2018.

Although many of these satellites are affiliated with commercial and civil missions, their dual-use nature means the data they collect can be used by the PLA.

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The DIA stated, “China’s expansive system of ISR satellites can be used to support global monitoring, tracking and targeting of US and allied forces worldwide, especially throughout the Indo-Pacific region, including strategic locations such as the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.”

The document also accused Chinese ISR companies of supplying imagery to state actors banned by Western providers for supporting weapons proliferation.

China’s burgeoning low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation can provide images of any location in the world within 30 minutes.

Its geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) signals intelligence, electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar satellites also provide coverage with no latency.

Combined with other assets, the PLA can track objects anywhere in the Indo-Pacific region. This could include American aircraft carriers and expeditionary strike groups, for example.

China is also exploring quantum-enabled communications, which would eventually ensure highly secure communications for the PLA.

The BeiDou satellite navigation system is a blue-ribbon project for China. This instrument of national power offers worldwide coverage.

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BeiDou currently has 49 satellites in orbit to provide PNT services. The PLA relies on it for targeting by precision-guided weapons, for instance.

Today, BeiDou has more than two billion users, including some countries that plan to use it as their primary PNT system, a state of affairs likely to lead to future dependencies on China.

Beijing is getting its foot in the door with nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America via its Belt and Road Initiative.

China provides training, joint development and launch of satellites, as well as services from its BeiDou satellite navigation system, for example.

Alarmingly, the report noted: “China has developed and will continue to advance weapons for use against satellites in orbit to disrupt, damage and destroy other nations’ space capabilities.

China continues to research, develop, test and deploy multiple types of counterspace weapons, including ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) missile systems capable of destroying satellites.”

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Later, in 2013, China launched an object to a range of 30,000km, which the DIA assesses was likely a missile capable of destroying satellites in GEO.

The report noted, “To expand the range of its ASAT deterrent, China probably intends to deploy additional ASAT missiles that can destroy satellites in low, medium and high orbits.

However, if ASAT missiles were used in a conflict, China would have to contend with the resulting large debris fields threatening its own on-orbit systems and those of neutral parties.”

Alternatives to complete destruction are also available. Using ground-based and orbital systems, the PLA can jam adversary space systems during a conflict.

Beijing can also use cyber operations to support military operations against satellites.

The DIA suspects the Tongxin Jishu Shiyan series of satellites – of which there are now 27 – are capable of harming other satellites. On occasion, they have passed within 10km of foreign spacecraft.

Furthermore, China is known to be researching space-based kinetic weapons that can be used against targets on the ground, at sea or in the air.

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The PLA can also use directed-energy weapons – such as lasers that can dazzle and temporarily blind sensors – against enemy space assets.

These weapons can cause both reversible and irreversible effects against satellites.

The DIA recorded: “China has multiple ground-based laser weapons with varying power levels to disrupt, degrade or damage satellites in LEO; by the late 2020s, China may field space-based directed-energy systems and higher-powered ground-based directed-energy systems capable of threatening satellites in higher orbits.”

PLA doctrine consistently demonstrates an intention to control space-enabled information and to deny the domain’s use to enemies.

Challenges to Security in Space 2026 summarised: “China’s development of a wide range of counterspace capabilities suggests the PLA probably is taking a combined-arms approach to space and seeks to threaten other nations’ satellites with multiple types of weapons.

This combined-arms approach would enable the PLA to tailor its responses to particular situations, taking actions ranging from those that create temporary effects at the lowest level of escalation to actions that create permanent, non-reversible effects.

PRC strategists very likely estimate that demonstrating counterspace capabilities during a crisis could threaten or incrementally degrade an adversary’s space architecture as a prelude to war.

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PLA researchers assert that using space-related weapons to coerce a particular behaviour will have a lower threshold for use than nuclear weapons, and is a more controllable, flexible and credible option than nuclear deterrence, at least partially because these systems’ escalatory effects can also be modulated to disrupt, damage or destroy.”

It continued, “China’s national military strategy emphasises the safeguarding of national sovereignty and territorial integrity as Beijing’s key objective and proclaims active defence – strategic defence paired with operational and tactical offence – as its guideline to contain and win wars.

According to its national strategy and military literature, China identifies space as a strategic priority for military dominance and political influence.

The Chinese military perceives space as a force multiplier that integrates cross-domain operations and platforms, an enabler of modern warfighting capabilities and a precondition for superiority and victories in other operational domains.”

Hypocritically, China is pursuing agreements at the United Nations for the “non-weaponisation” of space.

Yet, at the same time, Beijing is improving its counterspace weapons “to deter and compel other nations from taking actions Beijing deems counter to its national security interests,” the report accused.

Taiwan clearly has military plans concerning Taiwan and, if an invasion or attack is carried out, the PLA would need to deter the USA from intervening.

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This reality is reflected in the report, which said, “The PLA probably sees counterspace operations as a way to dissuade and prevent an intervention from other nations during a regional military conflict.”

Chairman Xi Jinping dissolved the Strategic Support Force of the PLA, which had been responsible for space operations, in April 2024.

Those space capabilities were subsumed into the newly created Aerospace Force. This latter organisation falls directly under the CMC, giving immediate control to Xi and the top military body.

Another aspect of developments in space is the growing dependence on commercial space capabilities for national security.

As satellites become cheaper, smaller and faster to deploy, commercial enterprises are offering both state and non-state actors alternatives.

Russia has targeted commercial constellations with jammers, particularly those from the USA. Furthermore, Moscow has increasingly looked to China for space-based support for its military operations against Ukraine.

China has been pursuing a state-directed civil-military fusion policy designed to strengthen the PLA’s capability.

China is now second only to the USA in terms of the amount of private capital being directed towards the space sector.

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This is impressive, given that this explosion in commercial space companies has occurred in just a decade.

Today, there are more than 400 Chinese companies ready to offer space services to both local and foreign clients.

Looking into the future, the DIA report predicted: “China and Russia will continue to pursue new and improved counterspace capabilities to exploit a perceived US and allied reliance on space-based assets.

China has developed and probably will continue to develop weapons for use against satellites in orbit to disrupt, damage and destroy adversary space capabilities.”

The document’s writers also warned that both China and Russia will seek to compromise US space infrastructure to deny their strategic military, economic and political benefits.

Furthermore, “Over the next decade, threats to systems, operations in space and the entire space domain could increase if China and Russia successfully develop reusable space systems and super-intelligence applications for space.”

Super-intelligence, President Donald Trump’s preferred name for artificial intelligence, could expedite Chinese military capabilities and support actions against the USA and its allies during a conflict.

What the report says, in a nutshell, is that the USA now has its hands full fending off Chinese efforts to diminish its dominance in space. 

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(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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