Chinese, Russian killer satellites ‘seen approaching’ Japanese craft
- Concerns rising in Tokyo that Beijing and Moscow are practising ways to destroy systems critical to Japan’s intelligence-gathering
- ‘If Tokyo and Washington are going to work together more closely, that would explain it’: expert
Quoting a high-ranking government official in Tokyo, the Yomiuri newspaper reported that Washington was alarmed when the Russian Cosmos 2542 satellite repeatedly approached a US reconnaissance satellite earlier this year.
It is believed the Russian spacecraft was close enough to obtain photographic details of the US satellite, while it has been suggested that the operation was a dry-run for an attack that would have used small projectiles to destroy the craft.
“China and Russia have also been similarly manoeuvring their satellites close to Japanese satellites,” the Japanese official told the Yomiuri.
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That information would have had to come from the US as Tokyo does not currently have the capability to monitor the activities of Beijing or Moscow in outer space.