Errymath: DN-3

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China recently conducted a flight test of a new missile capable of 
knocking out U.S. satellites as part of Beijing’s growing space warfare 
arsenal. 
 
The test of a Dong Neng-3 exoatmospheric vehicle was carried out Oct. 30
 from China’s Korla Missile Test Complex in western China, said two 
defense officials familiar with reports of the test. 
 
A Chinese press report also provided details of what was said to be a 
missile defense interceptor flight test carried out Nov. 1. Photos of 
the missile’s contrails were posted online. 
 
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DN-3 test contrails 
 
However, the defense officials said the DN-3 is primarily a 
direct-ascent missile designed to ram into satellites and destroy them, 
even if intelligence assessments hold that the weapon has some missile 
defense capabilities. 
 
The DN-3 flight test was the eighth time China carried out an 
anti-satellite missile test. An earlier test occurred in July 2014, 
which China also asserted was a missile defense test. 
 
State Department and Pentagon officials declined to comment on the anti-satellite test. 
 
A Chinese Embassy spokesman said: “I don’t have detailed information about the missile test you mentioned.” 
 
“China advocates for the peaceful use of outer space, and opposes space 
weaponization or arms race in space,” the spokesman said in an email. 
 
A State official referred to a <a class="externalLink" href="http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/2015/237746.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">speech</a>
 from February by Frank Rose, assistant secretary of State for arms 
control, verification and compliance, who commented on the 2014 test. 
 
“Despite China’s claims that this was not an ASAT [anti-satellite] test;
 let me assure you the United States has high confidence in its 
assessment, that the event was indeed an ASAT test,” Rose said. 
 
“The continued development and testing of destructive ASAT systems is 
both destabilizing and threatens the long-term security and 
sustainability of the outer space environment,” he added. 
 
China’s most disruptive ASAT test occurred in January 2007 when a direct
 ascent missile destroyed a Chinese weather satellite, creating tens of 
thousands of debris pieces that pose a continuing danger to both 
satellites and manned spacecraft, like the International Space Station. 
 
Rose said the secrecy surrounding China’s ASAT program is preventing any
 U.S. cooperation with Beijing on space. Cooperation will only possible 
after “China changes its behavior with regard to ASATs,” he said. 
 
Documents disclosed by Wikileaks revealed that the United States and 
Asian allies issued protests to China over a January 2010 flight test of
 an anti-satellite missile from an SC-19 rocket booster. 
 
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DN-3 test contrails 
 
It could not be learned if protests were lodged over the Oct. 30 test. 
 
China’s Guancha.com <a class="externalLink" href="http://www.guancha.cn/military-affairs/2015_11_01_339656.shtml" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reported</a>
 Nov. 1 that the unusual contrails near the city of Korla, in Xinjiang 
province, that appeared to be signs of a spacecraft launch or possibly 
“a midcourse anti-missile test.” 
 
“In recent years, similar clouds have appeared over the skies of 
Xinjiang many times,” the report said. “A few of them have been linked 
to land-based midcourse anti-missile interception tests.” 
 
Hong Kong’s Ming Pao then reported Nov. 4 that the test appear to
 be a “final-phase missile interception test had been conducted in the 
upper atmosphere.” 
 
“The capability to intercept was one of the capabilities of the PRC 
Hongqi-19 missile, and may be employed to intercept high supersonic 
gliding targets on the offensive,” Ming Pao stated. 
 
A forthcoming report by the congressional U.S.-China Economic and 
Security Review Commission contains an entire chapter on China’s 
military and civilian space capabilities. 
 
The report discusses two anti-satellite missiles, the SC-19 and the 
larger DN-2, which are meant to be fired in pre-determined flight paths 
as a satellite passes over Chinese territory. 
 
The report suggests that China disguised its anti-satellite tests in 
2010, 2013, and 2014 as missile defense interceptor tests. It stated 
that each test involved a high-speed intercept of a mock warhead 
launched by a ballistic missile and not a satellite as a way to avoid 
debris. 
 
“Although China has called these tests ‘land-based missile interception 
tests,’ available evidence suggests they were indeed antisatellite 
tests,” the report said. 
 
The May 2013 DN-2 anti-satellite test involved “nearly geosynchronous 
orbit” where most intelligence and navigation satellites are located. 
The commission described that test as demonstrating “a new high-altitude
 anti-satellite capability” that could be deployed as early as 2020. 
 
The 2013 test, which reached 18,600 miles into space, was first <a class="externalLink" href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-conducts-test-of-new-anti-satellite-missile/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reported</a> by the Washington Free Beacon. 
 
Since 2005, China has conducted seven anti-satellite direct-ascent 
missile tests, according to the commission report. The report did not 
include the latest DN-3 test. 
 
 
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U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission 
 
“China is pursuing a broad and robust array of counterspace 
capabilities, which includes direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles, 
co-orbital anti-satellite systems, computer network operations, 
ground-based satellite jammers, and directed energy weapons,” the report
 said. 
 
Air Force Lt. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, commander of the Joint Functional
 Component Command for Space, said at a House hearing in March that “we 
are quickly approaching the point where every satellite in every orbit 
can be threatened.” 
 
Rick Fisher, a military analyst with the International Assessment and 
Strategy Center, said if the DN-3 interceptor test is confirmed, “this 
is the first mention of the DN-3, apparently either a modified version 
of the DN-2 or a new anti-satellite weapon.” 
 
Fisher said the missile designated as the DN-1 was based on the SC-19 
anti-satellite missile first tested in 2007, and that the DN-1’s booster
 appeared to be based on the KT-1 solid-fueled space launch vehicle, 
produced by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. “It would 
follow that the DN-2 and DN-3 may also be [the corporation’s] products,”
 he said. 
 
China recently developed two new and more powerful space launchers called the KZ-1 and KZ-11. 
 
A DN-3 weapon based on the KZ-11 launcher would be capable of hitting targets at higher orbits. 
 
If the recent test involved missile defenses, “China may be developing 
[anti-ballistic missile] ABM systems capable of intercepts at much 
longer ranges than U.S. Ground-Based Interceptors based at Fort Greely 
in Alaska,” Fisher said. 
 
China has been harshly critical of U.S. missile defenses and has said it opposes all space weapons. 
 
However, the development of both missile defenses and anti-satellite 
missiles by China has been underway since the early 1990s, Fisher said. 
 
“The United States so far has not developed very high-altitude ASAT 
systems like the DN-2 and DN-3, also proving that China has little 
intention to follow the example of American restraint,” he said. 
 
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Rand Corporation 
 
A <a class="externalLink" href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR300/RR392/RAND_RR392.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">report</a> by the Rand Corporation published in September concluded that the Chinese threat to U.S. satellites is increasing. 
 
“The risk to most U.S. space functions appears to be growing faster than
 the U.S. ability or effort to mitigate them,” the report said, noting 
that Chinese space warfare capabilities “are increasing across the 
board.” 
 
“In a number of areas, the U.S. military is taking steps to mitigate the
 threat,” the report said. “Whether these efforts succeed in making U.S.
 systems safe or, at least, unattractive targets should a U.S.-China 
conflict occur will depend on what investments the United States makes 
in space defense in the coming years and whether it can find ways to 
reduce its systems’ vulnerabilities.” 
 
Air Force Gen. John Hyten, head of the Air Force Space Command told CBS’s 60 Minutes in April that U.S. weapons are being developed to counter China’s space arms. 
 
Hyten said if U.S. satellites are threatened, “we have the right of self defense and we’ll make sure we can execute that right.” 
 
On the possible future use of military force in space, Hyten bluntly said: “That’s why we have a military … I’m not NASA.” 
 
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told sailors aboard the aircraft carrier 
USS Roosevelt last week that the Pentagon is closely watching Chinese 
weapons developments. “And so, we see them building a system that’s new,
 we make sure we have countermeasures to that and actually, we’re making
 new substantial investments, new investments,” he said, noting 
electronic warfare, cyber defenses, air defenses, cruise missile 
defenses. 
 
“All that’s really important because we’ve got to make sure the balance 
doesn’t change here, qualitatively or quantitatively, and we’re not 
going to let that happen,” Carter said. 
 
 
Bill Gertz <a href="mailto:comments@freebeacon.com">Email Bill</a> | <a class="externalLink" href="http://freebeacon.com/author/bill-gertz/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Full Bio</a> | <a class="externalLink" href="http://freebeacon.com/author/bill-gertz/feed/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RSS</a> 
Bill Gertz is the senior editor of the Washington Free Beacon. 
 
<a class="externalLink" href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-tests-anti-satellite-missile/#sthash.M1V4BIe6.dpuf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">China Tests Anti-Satellite Missile - Washington Free Beacon</a> 
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DN-3 Anti-Satellite Missile Tests

China recently conducted a flight test of a new missile capable of knocking out U.S. satellites as part of Beijing’s growing space wa...

Errymath

DN-3 Anti-Satellite Missile Tests

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