Bolton and Yoo offer no explanation for this suspicion, but noted China's successful deployment of an
antisatellite weapon in 2007, and also that "it is deploying its own GPS system[, and i]n a war, China could potentially destroy [U.
The spent rocket was a leftover from China's test of an
antisatellite weapon in 2007.
moves toward space control; some interpret the development of a kinetic-kill
antisatellite weapon by China in this context.
Whether this was done by triggering an internal mechanism or as a test of an
antisatellite weapon is an interesting and open question.
Since they are used to track American naval fleets, the Defense Department sees them as a major argument for developing an American
antisatellite weapon system, something that Brown and other Congressional opponents have managed to block so far.
The United States wanted allies to seek answers to questions about China's ASAT program: Would there be "further tests of a direct-ascent
antisatellite weapon or other
antisatellite weapons, capabilities, or technologies?
Dan Quayle is also an admirer; once, in a speech on the Senate floor, Quayle advocated funding the ASAT
antisatellite weapon on the grounds that it was what won the war in Red Storm Rising.
On 11 January 2007, China launched its first
antisatellite weapon against one of its aging weather satellites, successfully destroying the spacecraft and demonstrating another building block in China's capability to deploy asymmetric force.
In light of recent significant Chinese achievements in this realm (including the acknowledged testing of an
antisatellite weapon on 11 January 2007), however, such factors should perhaps be integrated into follow-on studies by O'Rourke and his colleagues.
The author, Dean Cheng, argues that China sees space as a "major component of future conflict," although its motives remain unclear at times, such as those surrounding the January 2007
antisatellite weapon test.
For example, they might employ a direct-ascent
antisatellite weapon or perhaps detonate a nuclear weapon in space.
nuclear cooperation agreement, China's test of an
antisatellite weapon, India's testing and pursuit of theater missile defenses, and India's and Pakistan's military modernization programs can all be defined as influencing factors.
