HELSINKI — The People’s Liberation Army has established latest facilities to enhance its space domain awareness capabilities, in line with a report.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Strategic Support Force’s (SSF) latest Base 37 is charged with boosting missile early warning capabilities and identifying, tracking and analyzing foreign space objects, in line with the report published by the China Aerospace Studies Institute Sept. 11.
China created the PLASSF in 2015 because the fifth branch of the PLA and charged it with integrating and overseeing areas reminiscent of space, cyber, and electronic warfare. While still not fully understood, its overarching goal is assessed to be obtaining information dominance and providing strategic support to the PLA.
Base 37 will improve the accuracy of the country’s domestic space object catalog and certain is similar to the U.S. Space Force’s Delta 2 and Delta 4 space domain awareness units.
“The brand new base will improve the PLA’s ability to offer early warning of incoming ballistic missiles to joint forces, and track and discover space objects’ location, maneuvers, and operating environment,” in line with the report.
Base 37 combines latest and existing facilities and certain has tracking stations and other installations within the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Hangzhou, Qinghai, and Hubei. Beijing and Chongqing municipalities also host facilities.
It might also be integrating data from space-based missile early warning satellites. A variety of China’s classified Tongxin Jishu Shiyan (TJS) satellites in geostationary orbit are regarded as for early warning purposes.
The report’s initial evaluation doesn’t reveal Base 37 to have a task in operating on-orbit systems, reminiscent of satellites reported to be fleeing, imaging and approaching U.S. satellites. It doesn’t operate China’s robotic arm-equipped movable satellites like Shijian-21, which towed a defunct satellite to a GEO graveyard orbit, and Shijian-17. The report nonetheless confirms it’s energetic in integrating and analyzing related data.
Based on a review of the bottom’s technical reports and patents, the report suggests that the primary priorities for Base 37 have been to extend the accuracy of China’s space object catalog, establish an internal collision early warning system, and improve identification and tracking of key perceived threats.
China’s space activities have expanded greatly in recent times, in turn demanding greater space domain awareness capabilities. The country conducted 14 orbital launch attempts in 2013, rising to 55 times in 2021, 64 times in 2022, and will reach 80 launches across 2023. During this time China has constructed a modular crewed space station and plans to construct a low Earth orbit megaconstellation.
The report also notes that Chinese papers discuss perceived threats. These include highly-maneuverable Starlink satellites, very low orbit space objects, and geosynchronous Earth orbit debris.
The establishment of Base 37 has implications for the U.S. Opportunities include the potential for greater cooperation within the realm of space domain awareness and more direct contact with reference to conjunction warnings. Notable challenges are possible greater Chinese distrust of U.S. on-orbit operations, reminiscent of activities within the GEO belt.
The report also notes that China doesn’t yet have on-orbit space situational awareness systems beyond small, experimental systems. This this may likely change in the approaching years nonetheless.