Canada, Australia and the United States voices concern over Chinese missile test

[mamaomao]

Canada voices concern over Chinese missile test
Last Updated: Thursday, January 18, 2007 | 1:56 PM ET
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/01/18/missile-test.html


Canada, Australia and the United States told China on Thursday that they are upset that it conducted an anti-satellite weapons test involving a ballistic missile last week.

"The United States believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"We and other countries have expressed our concern to the Chinese."

The test destroyed an old Chinese weather satellite. U.S. intelligence agencies said they think China carried out the test on January 11.

With files from the Associated Press

 

[mamaomao]

US tells China concerned by satellite-killer test
Thu 18 Jan 2007 19:01:25 GMT

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N18467357&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3


By Jim Wolf



WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The United States, Australia and Canada have voiced concerns to China over a test in space of a satellite-killing weapon last week, the White House said on Thursday.

"The U.S. believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese."

Using a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile, the test knocked out an aging Chinese weather satellite about 537 miles (865 km) above the earth on Jan. 11 through "kinetic impact," or by slamming into it, Johndroe said.

Canada and Australia had joined in voicing concern, he said.

Britain, South Korea and Japan were expected to follow suit, an administration official added.

A key concern is debris that could interfere with civilian and military satellite operations on which the West increasingly relies.

On the day of the test, a U.S. defense official said the United States was unable to communicate with an experimental spy satellite launched last year by the Pentagon's National Reconnaissance Office. But there was no immediate indication that this was a result of the Chinese test.

No such publicized destruction of a satellite in space has occurred in at least 15 years, said Marco Caceres, a space expert at the Teal Group, an aerospace consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia.

SATELLITE-KILLING CAPABILITY

Aviation Week & Space Technology, the first to report the test, cited space sources as saying a Chinese Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite, launched in 1999, was destroyed by an antisatellite system launched from or near China's Xichang Space Center in Sichuan Province.

The satellite-killing capability demonstrated by China was no surprise to the Bush administration, which revised U.S. national space policy in October with an eye on boosting protection of U.S. civilian and military satellites.

In a major speech about the policy last month, Robert Joseph, the State Department's point man for arms control and international security, said other nations and possibly terrorist groups were "acquiring capabilities to counter, attack and defeat U.S. space systems."

"No nation, no non-state actor, should be under the illusion that the United States will tolerate a denial of our right to the use of space for peaceful purposes," Joseph said on Dec. 13.

In classified projects shielded from public debate, the United States has been widely reported to be developing satellite-killers of its own, using more advanced technologies, including lasers.

Caceres said he expected the test to strengthen the Pentagon's hand in seeking funds from Congress to press a host of costly military space programs, almost all of which are over budget and behind schedule.

"They are going to use this for as much as they can," he said, referring to Pentagon officials. Major corporate beneficiaries could be Lockheed Martin Corp. <LMT.N>, Boeing Co. <BA.N> and Northrop Grumman Corp. <NOC.N>, which build U.S. communications, surveillance and early-warning satellites, Caceres added.

(Additional reporting by Iren Klotz in Cape Canaveral, Florida)

 

[mamaomao]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/18/wchina118.xml

US condemns China's satellite-killer test

By Alex Massie in Washington
Last Updated: 6:13pm GMT 18/01/2007

China drew fire from the United States for testing a space weapon that could be used to destroy satellites and other US equipment in orbit.

US intelligence agencies believe that China launched a ground-based "satellite-killer" missile on Jan 11 to destroy an aged and obsolete weather orbiter, 587 miles above the earth's surface. The weapon, which US intelligence believes was launched from the Xichang space centre, destroyed its target through a "kinetic impact" ? or direct hit ? the US said.

The sophistication of the launch and the weapon's ability to track and home in on a tiny satellite has raised fears that the major powers are heading towards the "militarisation" of space.



"The US believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," said a spokesman for the National Security Council.

"We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese." Australia and Canada also made their concern known to China.

The weaponisation of space is becoming an increasingly controversial element of international arms control agreements.

China's progress in missile technology further increases tensions between Washington and Beijing who increasingly see one another as long-term strategic rivals in the Pacific Ocean. Chinese investment in its navy is perceived as threatening the US-guaranteed independence of Taiwan, while Beijing's efforts to persuade the EU to lift its embargo on the sale of arms to China has also been opposed by the US.

Testifying before Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill last week, Lt-General Michael Maples warned that "Russia and China continue to be the primary states of concern regarding military space and counter-space programmes".

Other countries, he said, "continue to develop capabilities that have the potential to threaten US space assets, and some have already deployed systems with inherent anti-satellite capabilities, such as satellite-tracking laser range-finding devices and nuclear-armed ballistic missiles."

Beijing and Moscow have both denied seeking space weapons and have called for an international ban on weaponising space.

The United States already possesses similar missile technology to that tested by the Chinese this month. In 2004 the US Air Force deployed the 76th Space Control Squadron which is capable of using ground-operated electronic jamming devices and missiles to disable foreign satellites.

Last year the Bush administration unveiled the first new National Space Policy in 10 years, which warned that the US would take all action necessary to protect its space capabilities "and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile" to those interests. "Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power."

"The policy is designed to ensure that our space capabilities are protected in a time of increasing challenges and threats," said Robert Joseph, under-secretary for arms control and international security at the State Department. "This is imperative because space capabilities are vital to our national security and to our economic well being."

 

[ccc]

Their logic is, "We can have it or can do it, but you cannot. Never!"

Let them cry...

 

[mamaomao]

http://www.comefromchina.com/newbbs/showthread.php?threadid=526135&forumid=95

 

[mds]

最初由 ccc 发布
Their logic is, "We can have it or can do it, but you cannot. Never!"

Let them cry...

瞎说，中国技术落后，搞不好是自己放了个卫星没放好撞上去了 瞧瞧人家印度，?。。。。

美国都没有，中国没地方可偷啊

 

[yumax]

最初由 ccc 发布
Their logic is, "We can have it or can do it, but you cannot. Never!"

Let them cry...

You've got the point. Same like the anti terrorist action, American do it being crowned as justify, China and Russian do the same way maybe allege it as anti human right.