Project for the New American Century

Chinese ASAT and US space capabilities

Given that the Chinese have demonstrated the capability to obliterate satellites in low earth orbit, what does this mean for US military capabilities?

What do we know from publicly available sources?

  1. The Chinese have blown up a satelitte in low earth orbit. Low Earth Orbit being commonly defined as 200 - 2000 km above the earth.
  2. In the fall of 2006 the Chinese succeeded in illuminating a US satelitte with a laser. This was known by US intelligence agencies.
  3. The Project for the New American Century stated in their 2000 defense review that one important objective for the US should be the 'control of space and cyberspace'. This document has been followed extensively by the Bush administration and the military over the last 7 years. There is no reason to suspect that the US military would have slacked on 'control of space' while completing all other objectives. And in fact there is evidence to support that the US has publicly attempted to push forward with the 'control of space' objective by organizing of the US Space Corps, as a division of the US Air Force. To my knowledge this plan did not go forward publicly or directly.
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