Chinese Long Range Missiles
On the 23rd of July, the Chinese government announced that the People’s Liberation Army has carried out an experiment where a missile was launched to prepare for a surprise missile attack from a foreign enemy. The military told the public that they were preparing to develop a Chinese version of a Missile Defense system. However, SBS reported that many Western nations including the U.S. are expressing that China may be training and experimenting to intercept satellites at low orbit.
This is the third time China has undertaken such program. The past incidences took place in 2007 and 2010 where the targets were a Chinese missile and a decommissioned Chinese satellite that remained in earth orbit. If this most recent experiment indeed is a practice stage for knocking out foreign satellites out of the air, this could raise a serious problem.
Constructing a missile defense system cannot be seen as a threat to the rest of the world by any means. However, building weapons that could target other country’s satellites could be seen as an act of war, a preemptive strike. The Chinese government did not reveal what class of rockets was used for any of these experiments, but it is believed that they are a similar type that the U.S. used for defense. American defense experts have claimed that they probably fired the newly designed HQ-26 or the HQ-19.
Experts believe that the Chinese are now capable of building missiles that could target any American satellite orbiting the earth. The latest HQ class rockets were able to reach a target 20,000 kilometers off the surface of the earth. Right now, the U.S. has several military satellites constantly observing China and North Korea. However, the administration is unable to request that the experiments be called off, because the targets that were employed were other typed of Chinese missiles, making it so much easier for China to claim they are training for defense.
Another reason why satellite interception can be seen as such a serious problem is that the targets are mobile. If a satellite that was knocked out of orbit by a missile while it was still following its course through earth’s orbit, then the shrapnel could fall into the territory of a neutral state, causing serious damage and possible loss of life.
With North Korea recently testing its Scud class ballistic missiles and China carrying out similar types of military experiments, the U.S. and the Western world are expressing that tension is building once again in the Far East.
