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Liu Zhen

China is moving “breathtakingly fast” in space military technologies and posing strategic threats to the United States, America’s top space force official said on Tuesday.
USSF Commander General Stephen Whiting voiced concern about Beijing’s growing capabilities in three areas, echoing previous American warnings about a Chinese space-based “kill chain”.
“That is very concerning,” Whiting told military website Breaking Defence.
The general’s remarks came as space-based capabilities have played a crucial role in contemporary warfare, such as Operation Midnight Hammer over the weekend in which the US military carried out air strikes on suspected nuclear facilities in Iran.


Whiting identified three areas of concern, first singling out Beijing’s space-based targeting system aimed at locating, tracking and striking American and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific region.
The Chinese military uses these systems, he said, to support over-the-horizon precision strikes, aimed at key US military assets.
Whiting said he agreed with Anthony Mastalir, the USSF’s Indo-Pacific commander, in stating that China was “using increasingly large numbers of satellites to find, fix, track and target US and allied terrestrial capabilities,4 aircraft carriers” and other American assets.
According to the US Space Force’s latest space threat fact sheet in February, the Chinese military by the end of last year had more than 510 satellites capable of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
These satellites have optical, multispectral, radar and radio frequency sensors to detect US military assets and activities, it added.
Over the past 10 years, China has added 875 satellites in orbit. In 2024 alone, 260 space objects were launched, the Space Force said, of which 67 were ISR-capable satellites.
The second threat Whiting named was China’s deployment of a series of weapons to counter US space capabilities including “soft kills” – like reversible cyberattacks, satellite communication and GPS jamming – plus “hard kills” like high-energy lasers.
In particular, he pointed to China’s direct-ascent anti-satellite rockets and missiles as well as co-orbital anti-satellite systems as examples of such weaponry.

In the 2000s and 2010s, China conducted anti-satellite tests using direct-ascent missiles. In March, the USSF said it had observed Chinese satellites practising “space dogfight” in orbit, or multiple satellites making controlled synchronised manoeuvres.
As for the third way in which China’s military was moving “breathtakingly fast”, Whiting cited the PLA’s integration of space capabilities into its traditional forces.
“They have leveraged all the advantages of space to make their [PLA Army, Navy and Air Force] more lethal, more precise and more far-ranging, using space-enabled services,” he said.
The Space Force chief’s comments reiterated US military concern about space being a new frontier for strategic competition and potential conflict.
The PLA added its military aerospace unit under its Strategic Support Force branch in a major structural overhaul in 2016, three years earlier than the USSF’s creation.
Last year, the Military Aerospace Force was established as an independent service branch reporting directly to the Central Military Commission – the country’s highest military leadership body in the Communist Party – underscoring its importance.
Meanwhile, satellites have proved increasingly indispensable to armed conflict.
During Operation Midnight Hammer, US satellites acquired pre-strike imagery, facilitated communications for the 18-hour, radio-silent flight missions, guided air-launched munitions and Tomahawk missiles and delivered post-strike assessments.
In addition, space-based sensors offered early warnings about Iran’s retaliatory strikes directed at American military bases in the Gulf region.


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China moving ‘breathtakingly fast’ in space military tech, posing threat to US: commander

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America’s top space force official voices concern about Beijing’s growing capabilities, echoing previous warnings about ‘kill chain’


America’s top space force official voices concern about Beijing’s growing capabilities, echoing previous warnings about ‘kill chain’.


China moving ‘breathtakingly fast’ in space military tech, posing threat to US: commander

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}America’s top space force official voices concern about Beijing’s growing capabilities, echoing previous warnings about ‘kill chain’

America’s top space force official voices concern about Beijing’s growing capabilities, echoing previous warnings about ‘kill chain’