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GEO SIGINT

Although China has an extensive and robust ground, sea and air-based SIGINT assets, it has apparently not otherwise exploited space-based systems for signals intelligence purposes. Taking into account the generally accepted lag of some 15-20 years between the state of the art in Chinese and American spacecraft contstruction, it would appear within Chinese technological capabilities to construct high-altitude SIGINT spacecraft with antenna diameters of a few tens of meters, equivalent to American spacecraft of the 1970s. That China has not done so to date almost certainly relates to the high cost and low productivity of such a system relative to current Chinese intelligence collection priorities.

The experimental ELINT satellites of the late 1970s were discontinued for unknown reasons. Technical writings, however, provide indications that the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), the successor of the Shanghai Bureau of Astronautics, has resurrected the program and intends to field a satellite-borne electronic reconnaissance system.

Sources and Resources

• CHINA'S STRATEGIC MODERNIZATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UNITED STATES Mark A. Stokes [U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute] -- September 1999

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