A month ago China tested a new exoatmospheric missile, which would be able to destroy U.S. satellites. The Dong Neng-3 Exoatmospheric Vehicle (DN-3) was tested on the 30th of October this year at Korla Missile Test Complex in western China.
The DN-3 is a direct-ascent missile, designed to ram enemy satellites and destroy them. This is China’s eighth test of an anti-satellite missile since 2005.
According to the Chinese government, the launch of the DN-3 was a missile defense test, although the U.S. government is confident the event was indeed an ASAT (anti-satellite) test.
The DN-3 test is part of Beijing’s growing effort to develop its space warfare arsenal. China started research and development of ASAT weapons in the 1960s & 1970s under Project 640, China’s highly secretive national missile defence programme. However Project 640 was cancelled in 1980 and R&D was continued under Programme 863, work for which only began to yield results in the 2000s however, when a number of the weapons were tested.
The first anti-satellite missile tests occurred in 2005 and 2006, but on these occasions no targets were intercepted. The missile used on both occasions was the SC-19, a direct ascent missile, believed to be based on a modified DF-21 medium-range ballistic missile (NATO designation CSS-5) with a maximum range of 2,700km. However, China’s most disruptive and well known exoatmospheric missile test occurred on the 11th of January 2007, when the SC-19 destroyed an inactive Chinese meteorological satellite, type Fengyun 1C (FY-1C).
Several years later documents disclosed by Wikileaks revealed that the U.S. and its Asian allies had issued protests to China over a flight test of an anti-satellite missile that took place on the 11th of January 2010. On that day China tested their new anti-satellite missile, the DN-1. It was subsequently tested again on the 27th of January 2013
According to Rick Fisher, a military analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Centre, the DN-1 was based on the SC-19 and its booster on the KT-1 solid fueled space-launch vehicle produced by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.
The new DN-2 anti-satellite missile was first tested on the 13th of May 2013 and then again in July 2014. Unlike the SC-19, which was designed to engage targets in low Earth orbits, the DN-2 was designed to reach high Earth orbits and was believed to be capable of destroying US Global Positioning Satellites.
Rick Fisher believes that the most recent test this October involved either a new missile (the DN-3), a modified version of the DN-2 or a completely new anti-satellite missile. The DN-3 is based on the KZ-11 space launcher and would be capable of hitting targets in high orbits.
Unlike China, the United States has not developed comparable high-altitude anti-satellite systems. This shows how seriously Beijing is taking the preparation of its missile force. It may also indicate that China is planning to neutralize the satellite fleets of its opponents.
Image Sourced: Project 2049 Institute