People's Republic of China's Counterspace Program and the Implications for U.S. National Security

The current and the evolving counterspace threat posed by China to U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific theater and outside is extremely serious. The threat ranks on par with the dangers posed by Chinese offensive cyber operations to the United States more generally. The diversity and the complexity of China’s counterspace programs make them particularly problematic, because they span the gamut all the way from direct-ascent and coorbital ASAT [anti-satellite] programs, which receive enormous attention, to equally challenging threats like electronic warfare intended to paralyze U.S. satellite communications, to more recondite dangers, such as directed-energy weapons and radiofrequency weapons and computer network attack capabilities. The incentives that drive China to pursue its counterspace programs are strong and will only intensify over time because China views itself as being in a geopolitical competition with the United States and believes that it must prepare itself for a possible conflict with a superior U.S. military.