China to Deploy Antisatellite Laser by 2020

The Defense Intelligence Agency is reportedly stating the Chinese military will deploy an antisatellite laser in 2020. This will be able to not just blind temporarily, but permanently damage satellites in orbit. The Washington Free Beacon broke the story.

The Chinese have been blinding US satellites temporarily for years. It is the equivalent of shining a bright light into telescope or even your eyes. Lasers are useful in that role because the beam spreads far less and can be targeted far, far easily. The target is also not permanently damaged. The Chinese don't do it too often, but mainly as tests and possibly to deny intelligence when the subject is sensitive.

This new laser will be able to damage the optics, body and solar panels of a satellite. It may be able to destroy the satellite. This is preferable to the hard kill missile weapons both on a per shot cost and the fact it will not send nearly as much orbital debris everywhere. Orbital debris can damage other satellites, even Chinese, inadvertently. Space is big, but low earth orbit is not that big.

Yes, yes. The US did a test in the late 1990s. using the MIRACL laser at WSMR against a satellite. This was met with international unhappiness and even from DC. The program was scaled back significantly. MIRACL itself was eventually decommissioned. Newer lasers can probably do the same work. 100 kw is generally accepted as what is needed and the US military is working on it. However, we have been dragging our butts due to our terrible procurement system and it will require tests against targets to verify: sat tracking is ancient tech, but even ancient tech married to new tech requires testing. best not to do that when lives are on the line.

That said, here's another instance - like the chinese railgun - where china is pulling ahead of the US.

All because of American complacency and the stupidity of our procurement system. Even the conservatism of our brass comes into play.

freebeacon.com...

a reply to: anzha

It was only a matter of time before LEO became a military domain, human nature being what it is.

Don't kid yourself though. Ours are already there.

I'm positive that the "decomishioning" of the original project wasn'ts the end of it. More likely it moved to black area of research, thereby creating plausible deniability in Washington.

That was nearly 30 yrs ago....lol

a reply to: Mach2

I'm positive that the "decomishioning" of the original project wasn'ts the end of it. More likely it moved to black area of research, thereby creating plausible deniability in Washington.

I can speak authoritatively that the american asat laser was decommissioned and there was no immediate follow-up.

The money was spent on getting the fiber lasers (and other solid state lasers) up to speed.

We will not have an equivalent capability for at least 2, 3 years after the Chinese.

Stop assuming everyone in DC is competent.

a reply to: anzha

Believe what you wish.

I believe the maniacs truly running our military, at the cutting edge level, is not only competent, but ruthless.

I wonder who they stole the tech from this time.

a reply to: anzha

Gotta agree with Mach2 on this, anything we hear about on the clear web is decades behind what they're really capable of. Kinda like NASA, government tend to have little fronts to keep the publics hard-on and moral up.

Still a great post though! Love new sourced information, not much we can do with blind speculation.

a reply to: anzha

the first satellite they fry will be the last time they have satellites in orbit.ever.

a reply to: DoctorX11

Over confidence has been the downfall of many an empire...or republic. Assuming an enemy is a moron and incapable of developing its own tech is a sure way to demonstrate the same in the assuming. The laws of physics don't care about what color flag someone flies.

You guys are assuming the Pentagon is wildly competent and there is more than enough money for every black program.

They aren't and there isn't.

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: DoctorX11

Over confidence has been the downfall of many an empire...or republic. Assuming an enemy is a moron and incapable of developing its own tech is a sure way to demonstrate the same in the assuming. The laws of physics don't care about what color flag someone flies.

You guys are assuming the Pentagon is wildly competent and there is more than enough money for every black program.

They aren't and there isn't.

Ok, cut the crap, seriously.

No where in his post does he suggest that china is a "moron" and you're assumptions are simply WRONG.

We know our adversaries are getting more advanced because the US ushered in an era of rebirth that will result in the eventuality of a "Multi-Polar" world, meaning anyone with brains can and eventually figure things out. Sure the US may be ahead in some areas and dead in others.

You really need to stop the fear mongering.

DoctorX1 is right, despite your "Authoritatively" all we do have is blind speculation and who knows what might be worked on not in the public domain. All this information is compartmented and need to know, at least in the Army, we kepted a tight SOP.

Honestly, I don't participate in these types if threads because there isn't any one true authority out there other than basic knowledge and actual hands on experience. We could never know the full details and I won't try, so neither should you.

a reply to: Arnie123

Don't kid yourself though. Ours are already there.

Overconfidence.

I wonder who they stole the tech from this time.

Calling them a moron.

Right there for both, Arnie.

The FCS, LCS, Zumwalt. The Ford class and the Pegasus. The fact the Chinese put a railgun to sea already is another. This laser is another. The Chinese hypersonic weapons are yet another. Then there's the space plane - HTHL, supposedly! - that will fly some time in the next 3 years.

All of this screams /we/ are fscking up.

The multipolar world was inevitable. It ought not to have arisen for another decade or two. We've been spending money on nonsensical things and even when not, spending it badly. There's plenty of fear mongering these days, but it is OT for this forum. And what I am writing is far, far from fear mongering.

a reply to: DoctorX11

No, it isn't always the case. There are many programs that end and don't go anywhere after. There are a lot of programs that need funding, and a good way to do that is end one and take that money. A number of programs do continue, but as pointed out, sometimes getting that program to continue takes competency, which is something not seen in the Pentagon in a long time.

The Navy and unmanned vehicles is a great example. Instead of embracing them and using them as force multipliers, as they should, they're fighting them almost tooth and nail, and dragging their feet. It's practically taking an act of god to get them to put them into service.

www.dia.mil...

originally posted by: anzha

That said, here's another instance - like the chinese railgun - where china is pulling ahead of the US.

China has been blinding US satellites since the 2000s... while the US on the other hand lacked suitable targets to blind until recently.
I dont get the alarmism on this. Its comparatively easy to build a laser to blind or damage satellites in LEO. Research into this has been done since the highs of the Cold War. Just because the capability was not deployed in the public realm - mostly because there was no demand and no reason to do so for most of the past thirty years - doesn't mean China is suddenly 'pulling ahead'.
Yes, they may have an operational weapon system the US probably doesn't have. So what? The relevant question is whether or not the US needs this specific capability too.
And i don't think so.
Mainly because the US has perfectly capable ASAT assets already deployed. It may not be talked about very much, but SM-3 Block IIa/b and GBIs are perfectly capable ASAT weapons. And no, by the time China is starting to destroy US satellites, nobody will give a damn about impact debris.
On top of that, I do firmly believe there is much more going on in the classified realm with ASAT. NSDM 345 by President Ford ordered the development and deployment of a non nuclear asat capability after Program 437 was terminated. I don’t think for a second that the only thing they came up with was the air launched ASM-135.