Dragon in space

The number of satellite series that China runs has increased from four to six. Defined by their function, the different satellite families focus on communication, direct broadcast, remote sensing, weather, navigation and research.

Most of these satellite systems have military applications built into them. For example, the communication satellites can help beef up the Red Army’s command and control systems. The navigation satellites enhance the accuracy of its missile force.

As China’s civilian and military space programmes leap ahead, the international reaction too is setting in. Last week, China abruptly postponed an international conference to be held in Beijing this week on managing the dangerous space waste.

China was apparently concerned that the meeting would have become an occasion for international criticism of its controversial test of an anti-satellite weapon last January. The test which broke up an old weather satellite is said to have created up to 1500 pieces of debris. Western media is speculating that many of the Chinese civilian space experts were kept in the dark about the ASAT test by Beijing’s military establishment.

Pakistan gets and gives

Lagging well behind India in its civilian space programme, Pakistan is turning to its all-weather friend, China. During the little noticed visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to China earlier this month, Beijing promised to help Pakistan build and launch satellites for remote sensing and communication.

The Indian security establishment will be eager to know the technical specifications of the remote sensing satellite China is offering Pakistan. Put simply, would it be capable of picking up sensitive military information on India from the skies?

New Delhi would also be keen to figure out what Pakistan is giving in return for China’s gift of a spy satellite. There are unconfirmed reports that Pakistan is already hosting a Chinese space communication facility at Karachi.

Soaring into space does not necessarily liberate you from terra firma. The bigger your space programme, the greater the need for tracking stations around the world.

Great powers manage their space assets with specially designed telemetry ships operating at strategic locations around the globe. China has four of these ships, but their activity needs to be supplemented by land-based stations. The Karachi tracking station is apparently among the three such foreign facilities currently operated by China.

Elint constellation

Western analysts say a major weakness of Chinese space programme is its lack of satellites dedicated to gathering electronic intelligence. Elint offers significant information on the communication traffic and radar signatures of other military forces, and boosts signal intelligence (Sigint) acquired from land-based facilities.

China is reported to be looking at an innovative solution. Instead of operating large and sophisticated Elint satellites, China plans to deploy a swarm of mini satellites to serve the same purpose.

Micro-satellites are small satellites generally defined as weighing between 10 and 100 kg, while small satellites range from 100 to 500 kg. Nano-satellites are those that weigh less than 10 kg.

Until now the slogan in space has been, “bigger the better”. As the world began to discover that small might be beautiful, China was quick to focus on the new area.

Since the late 1990s, China has launched a number of small, micro and nano satellites, apparently with a number of military objectives in mind. Beijing could use a constellation of these satellites for in-depth coverage of a particular area, say during a military crisis.

Micro satellites also lighten the load of maritime surveillance that needs to cover vast ocean areas. They could also help disrupt the space-based communications of an adversary.

The writer is professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore