Increasingly strong reports continue to circulate that China is in the process of creating a fifth service within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) structure – a force devoted to space operations. Unconfirmed reports, to be sure, but on the grounds there is rarely any smoke without fire it is worth examining the issue in more detail.
The PLA currently consists of ground, air and naval services as well as the curiously named Second Artillery service, which controls China’s ballistic missiles and nuclear arsenal. Reports now claim a fifth service dedicated to space operations is being created as a focus around which to integrate some of the partial initiatives taken in recent years. The latest report surfaced in Japan’s respected national newspaper Yomihuri Shimbun in August and, although the story has subsequently been deleted from the journal’s website, the claims that President Xi has ordered the action do seem credible.
In April, the English language paper China Daily reported a speech made by Xi to PLA Air Force officers, urging them “to speed up air and space integration and sharpen [their] offensive and defensive capabilities,” and to create “a new type of combat unit” to act as the platform in which to achieve the ambition. "The US has paid considerable attention and resources to the integration of capabilities in both air and space, and other powers have also moved progressively toward space militarization. Though China has stated that it sticks to the peaceful use of space, we must make sure that we have the ability to cope with others' operations in space,” he said.
Chinese academic literature also provides some food for thought. One recent report correlates the issues of space warfare and cyber warfare, making the statement that “space will surely be the main battlefield of cyber warfare.” Taken in conjunction with US claims that China has concentrated massive efforts on hacking into and stealing information from prominent companies in the US and European satellite and aerospace industries, it would certainly make sense that China is carefully managing the creation of an organisation to integrate and exploit its growing capabilities in this area.
Some of these capabilities include an already developed anti-satellite system, tested in 2007, 2013 and this year, which in Chinese eyes is an essential capacity that would help counter American GPS capabilities in the event of an open conflict. A US DoD report to Congress in 2013 observed that China’s space programme had produced 18 separate launches the previous year, many of which placed new space-based intelligence and communications satellites in orbit. The report also made the point that China is developing anti-satellite technologies.
Furthermore, rather vaguer rumours centre on the purported development of a space plane, the so-called Shenlong or ‘Divine Dragon,’ which supposedly flew its first flight test in 2011. The spacecraft is seen by some observers as a response to the equally shadowy US X-37B space plane programme.
As is usual with China, hard, verifiable fact is hard to come by. But the preponderance of evidence does seem to suggest a coalescing of separate strands of activity to provide a cohesive and potentially powerful integrated space force to strengthen the 2.3 million members of the PLA.
The PLA currently consists of ground, air and naval services as well as the curiously named Second Artillery service, which controls China’s ballistic missiles and nuclear arsenal. Reports now claim a fifth service dedicated to space operations is being created as a focus around which to integrate some of the partial initiatives taken in recent years. The latest report surfaced in Japan’s respected national newspaper Yomihuri Shimbun in August and, although the story has subsequently been deleted from the journal’s website, the claims that President Xi has ordered the action do seem credible.
In April, the English language paper China Daily reported a speech made by Xi to PLA Air Force officers, urging them “to speed up air and space integration and sharpen [their] offensive and defensive capabilities,” and to create “a new type of combat unit” to act as the platform in which to achieve the ambition. "The US has paid considerable attention and resources to the integration of capabilities in both air and space, and other powers have also moved progressively toward space militarization. Though China has stated that it sticks to the peaceful use of space, we must make sure that we have the ability to cope with others' operations in space,” he said.
Chinese academic literature also provides some food for thought. One recent report correlates the issues of space warfare and cyber warfare, making the statement that “space will surely be the main battlefield of cyber warfare.” Taken in conjunction with US claims that China has concentrated massive efforts on hacking into and stealing information from prominent companies in the US and European satellite and aerospace industries, it would certainly make sense that China is carefully managing the creation of an organisation to integrate and exploit its growing capabilities in this area.
Some of these capabilities include an already developed anti-satellite system, tested in 2007, 2013 and this year, which in Chinese eyes is an essential capacity that would help counter American GPS capabilities in the event of an open conflict. A US DoD report to Congress in 2013 observed that China’s space programme had produced 18 separate launches the previous year, many of which placed new space-based intelligence and communications satellites in orbit. The report also made the point that China is developing anti-satellite technologies.
Furthermore, rather vaguer rumours centre on the purported development of a space plane, the so-called Shenlong or ‘Divine Dragon,’ which supposedly flew its first flight test in 2011. The spacecraft is seen by some observers as a response to the equally shadowy US X-37B space plane programme.
As is usual with China, hard, verifiable fact is hard to come by. But the preponderance of evidence does seem to suggest a coalescing of separate strands of activity to provide a cohesive and potentially powerful integrated space force to strengthen the 2.3 million members of the PLA.
Tim Mahon