China secretly fires lasers to disable US Spy satellites

last SG · 2006-10-04T16:20:39+00:00

gl USA. hopefully this doesn't start another arms race for the newest most high tech space weapons

coolant SG

Star War Episode unfolded? Laughing

Beijing secretly fires lasers to disable US satellites
By Francis Harris in Washington

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/26/wchina226.xml

(Filed: 26/09/2006)

China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday.

The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran.

Sources told the military affairs publication Defense News that there had been a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. In the end, the Pentagon's annual assessment of the growing Chinese military build-up barely mentioned the threat.

"After a contentious debate, the White House directed the Pentagon to limit its concern to one line," Defense News said.

The document said that China could blind American satellites with a ground-based laser firing a beam of light to prevent spy photography as they pass over China.

According to senior American officials: "China not only has the capability, but has exercised it." American satellites like the giant Keyhole craft have come under attack "several times" in recent years.

Although the Chinese tests do not aim to destroy American satellites, the laser attacks could make them useless over Chinese territory.

The American military has been so alarmed by the Chinese activity that it has begun test attacks against its own satellites to determine the severity of the threat.

Satellites are especially vulnerable to attack because they have predetermined orbits, allowing an enemy to know where they will appear.

"The Chinese are very strategically minded and are extremely active in this arena. They really believe all the stuff written in the 1980s about the high frontier," said one senior former Pentagon official.

There has been increasing alarm in parts of the American military establishment over China's growing military ambitions.

Military experts have already noted that Chinese military expenditure is increasingly designed to challenge American military pre-eminence by investing in weaponry that can attack key systems such as aircraft carriers and satellites.

At the same time, China is engaged in a large-scale espionage effort against American high-tech firms working on projects such as the multibillion-pound DD(X) destroyer programme.

Several spy rings have been cracked and the FBI is increasing the number of counter-intelligence staff tracking the Chinese effort.

BadzMaro SG

hardcore stuff~!

Fatum SG

ah …. Israeli technology ….

coolant SG

If such is the case, Israelis would be hanged on spot u know by whom Laughing

Just consider how much the Yankees rely on satellites, name a few: GPS, datalink, etc etc.

A virtual betrayal of US by them is like somebody back stab his biggest protector.
Wink

coolant SG

Secondly, I doubt Israelis got the same level technology for offer at 1st place.

Fatum SG

they did that before ....

and the Chinese have been developing tactical and strategic lazer technology with Israeli help for sometime now ....

their most modern tanks now come with lazer "dazzlers" to blind enemy's electro-optical systems ....

Sino-Israeli co-operation is not new, remember the Harpy ? .... Very Happy

Fatum SG

remember their recent effort to develop an anti-direct and indirect fire lazer shield , to protect against katshuyas and anti-tank missiles ? .... Razz

coolant SG

That works totally different from the way the laser used for disturb the satellite,

1st, Laser used for lazer shield or sort of things is very low in intensity if compared to laser used by Chinese by disturb the US satellite. I think could be easily many magnitudes lower. The Lzaer shield only requested to work in less than 1 km but the laser used for outerspace needs to penetrate 30kms thick dense atmosphere and still need powerful enough to travel another several kms at least to disable the enemy satellite.

2nd , the satellite travels much much faster than the normal ground missiles.

Fatum SG

yes of course, but my point was to high-light the fact that the Israelis are active in lazer research ... Wink

coolant SG

No, Israelis are not in the large-scale laser weapon scene. Some other high energy laser projects include Yankees B747 ABL and Russians are good at it as well.

Fatum SG

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4926840/

after their scud experience in Gulf War I, plus the Iranian threat, they'll be more concerned about ballastic missiles than Katshuyas, don't you think ? ... Wink

there are lots of others on google ... Razz

the.owl SG

LOL PEW PEW LAZERS

coolant SG

What we see is another example how Yankees help out their Jewish friends in ME, such laser project is still based on USs know how rather than Israelis expertise.

papabear20046 SG

According to Mark Stokes, a military author specializing in Chinese weapons development, Beijing's efforts to harness laser weapons technology began in the 1960s, under a program called Project 640-3, sanctioned by Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The Chinese, he said, renamed the project the "863 Program" in 1979, after a Chinese researcher named Sun Wanlin convinced the Central Military Commission "to maintain the pace and even raise the priority of laser development" in 1979.

Today, Beijing's effort to develop laser technology encompasses over "10,000 personnel -- including 3,000 engineers in 300 scientific research organizations -- with nearly 40 percent of China's laser research and development (R & D) devoted to military applications,"

To underscore Beijing's fixation with laser weaponry, the Hong Kong Standard reported Nov. 15 1999 that the Chinese have developed a laser-based anti-missile, anti-satellite system.

"China's system shoots a laser beam that destroys the [guidance systems] and causes the projectile to fall harmlessly to the ground," the paper said.

The report also noted that Beijing had "conducted tests of its new technology since August 1999," and said the system was "similar to the laser defense system technology being developed by the U.S. Air Force."

Rick Fischer, a congressional Chinese military hardware expert, stated that recent photographs of Chinese main battle tanks taken during military parades held in celebration of China's 50th anniversary of Communism in October showed "what was described as a photoelectric device that may have been a ground-based laser equivalent" of the same ASAT system.

Fischer said the U.S. is currently developing a similar weapon, whereby "a ground-based laser would be capable of producing a 'dazzle'" strong enough to knock an incoming missile off course."

However, he cautioned, "the Chinese may have beat us to the punch," though he said attempts to classify the new battle tank equipment as "definitely laser technology" were inconclusive.

As early as 1997, the Army reported successfully test-firing a ground-based laser called MIRCL at an orbiting Air Force MSTI-3 research satellite as it passed over the Army's White Sands, New Mexico, test facility. According to one published report, "Two bursts from the chemical laser struck a sensor array on the MSTI-3 craft."

"The 1028th Research Institute (RI) of the Ministry of Information Industry, a major Chinese developer of integrated air defense systems, has analyzed the use of lasers in future warfare. Such uses include active jamming of electro-optics, blinding combatants and damaging sensors, causing laser-guided weapons to deviate from their true targets, and target destruction."

The 1028th's analysis, the papers said, "concluded with the statement, 'The appearance of laser weapons will have a significant impact on modern warfare. On today's electronic battlefield, it is natural for defensive systems to use low-energy laser weapons to damage enemy electronic equipment. When high-energy lasers that can directly destroy tanks, planes and ships develop and mature, they will be formidable offensive weapons.'"

Maybe they have developed better sys since then n wanted to try again to take out a SAT.

coolant SG

More detailed read, from the DEFENSE-NEW website:

China Attempted To Blind U.S. Satellites With Laser

tankee1981 SG

From a neutral point of view, I think its legitimate ‘defence’ on the PRC part, this is because they are just hiding their own things from the US satellites by blinding (not destroying). I mean no nation can tolerate another country spying on them. Its like the previous incident with the spy plane off Hainan island. The US just can’t go around spying on people and complain to the world that the spy target won’t let them see what they want to see. In human to human behaviour this will be termed as bullying.

coolant SG

My thinking is if the news is true, why Chinese couldnt carry out the laser test on their own satellite but those owned by US? Are they trying to send a signal as well?

ah_kwang SG

hmm… seems like our ‘3G’ army which uses a lot of data-link and info sharing and of course survelliance and spying will be obsolete if this kind of systems can be obtain by our potential aggressors

audiovideo SG

so the anti, anti-anti, anti-anti-anti, anti-anti-anti-anti will go on... Laughing

saw this news on SCV chn 50
wow china media really very keen to report on military stuff..... good!

equlus84 SG

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/article_2077.asp

Chinese whispers and the Aussie killing machine
October 1, 2006
Reporter :Sarah Ferguson
Producer : Nick Farrow

The Chinese military is on a campaign to acquire Australia's military secrets. There are massive implications if the information gets out.

A special investigation by Sunday reveals that representatives of the People's Liberation Army of China have made at least four separate attempts to acquire secret, high-tech weaponry.

"Metal Storm" is the name given to a deadly weapon being developed by a Brisbane based company. The weapon has been identified by the US Department of Defence as a technology so deadly that it must not be allowed to get into the hands of America's enemies.

In one instance, a Chinese-Australian man on a trip to China was approached by a powerful bureaucrat with a secret proposition. The Chinese army needed someone to help them get their hands on "Metal Storm" weapons technology. Money was no object and a multi-million-dollar commission was the reward.

In another audacious approach to acquire the weapon, there was an attempt to lure the inventor of the technology to Beijing in return for a huge cash payment: "They said we don't want metal storm weapons, we don't want the paper work, we want you in Beijing."

The Chinese were so persistent that the Brisbane man feared for his safety and contacted the Defence Department's security service for protection: "What I was expected to do in Beijing was to divulge all the knowledge I had to enable prototypes to be built for the weapons system to be developed."

Unlike the United States, this method of acquiring secrets doesn't break any laws in Australia: "What I was expected to do in Beijing was to divulge all the knowledge I had to enable prototypes to be built, for the weapons system to be developed."

Sunday has the inside story of Chinese attempts to get hold of the most potent weapon under development, anywhere in the world.

TRANSCRIPT

SARAH FERGUSON: Early last year this man was approached by a powerful Chinese bureaucrat with a secret proposition a deal which, he was told, would net him millions of dollars. The Chinese army needed an Australian businessman to help them get their hands on the deadliest military technology ever invented in this country. The revolutionary weapon system's known as Metal Storm.

JUN YANG: Min Qiang say it's very important that you don't talking other person, and this one, the Chinese army very interested with this one, want to buy this one buy this technology and buy this gun.

SARAH FERGUSON: Until now Jun Yang has kept quiet about the proposition and the role the Chinese wanted him to play. When you return to Australia, we want you to purchase it for us, if you can't get the gun, get the technology. He was afraid of repercussions. But now he's decided to tell the story to alert Australia to the threat.

IAN GILLESPIE: After a bit more questioning it became clear the product, if she'd able to buy it, would have ended up in the hands of the Chinese military

BATES GILL: The Chinese are in the midst of a pretty important military build up. CUT In some cases it has taken Western intelligence agencies by surprise.

MIKE O'DWYER: I think the vulnerability for small Australian defence industries is high.

SARAH FERGUSON: The inventor of metal storm Mike O Dwyer says that the Chinese military have been pursuing the technology for almost 10 years. Do you think the australian govt takes it seriously enough?

MIKE O'DWYER: I think it's very unlikely the Australian government has understood the significant persistence and determination of this effort.

SARAH FERGUSON: O'Dwyer's concerns are shared by the US government which has classified Metal Storm as a technology which must not fall into the hands of America's enemies

SARAH FERGUSON: But what about the Australian Government? What has it done to protect Metal Storm, a technology it invested more than ten million dollars in developing? The answers are not encouraging. When we approached the embattled Defence Minister Brendon Nelson we were told he had only a "lukewarm" interest in the subject and referred our inquiries instead to the Department of Trade.

MIKE O'DWYER: It can unleash all those projectiles in such a short time that you will only hear one bang so it takes you into a realm that is beyond the capability of your eyes and ears to grasp.

SARAH FERGUSON: Metal Storm is so revolutionary it could potentially give any military force a profound advantage in firepower

MIKE O'DWYER: Some of this firepower is so great I have had Generals say to me, look, if we knew we were facing metal storm (pods) in a particular configuration we simply would make the decision that we can't go there it would be suicide.

SARAH FERGUSON: In a Metal Storm weapon, bullets or warheads are lined up inside the barrel. Still in prototype, the technology can be applied to almost any calibre of weapon

IAN GILLESPIE: Because of the way we fire the projectiles which is by electronic operation instead of mechanical we can fire at very high rates of fire. We have fired the gun at over one million rounds per minute.

SARAH FERGUSON: Over a decade the Australian government has invested more than $10 million and substantial expertise into developing the technology. O'Dwyer is frustrated though that they have not moved faster to get Metal Storm into combat.

MIKE O'DWYER: It is vitally import that the western democracies take advantage of that if you will in the sense of keeping ahead of any potential adversaries.

SARAH FERGUSON: It's a point well understood in the US. Analyst Bates Gill is funded by the American government to study the build up of the Chinese military.

BATES GILL: It's of particular concern to countries such as Japan, Australia and South Korea and other American allies because there may well be a situation down the road where we find ourselves in a confrontation with China and where these technologies might end up being used against us.

SARAH FERGUSON: The headquarters of Metal Storm are in this tower building in Brisbane in an office with an unusual level of security

IAN GILLESPIE: Our building is secure we've got more than the normal amount of security to ensure we know who is coming and going. And where our key information is sorted and protected.

SARAH FERGUSON: Metal Storm executive he knows there are people both inside and Australia and overseas who would like to copy or steal the technology.

IAN GILLESPIE: We take a number of steps to protect our technology including patents keeping a lot of our information secret ensuring our work is done in secure environments.

SARAH FERGUSON: In the United States, the defence department has spent more than $20 million on Metal Storm. The US government has enacted very strict controls to protect its military technology partly in response to China's aggressive military build up

BATES GILL: Within the US government Id say the Pentagon is probably the most concerned and it is the furthest out in front of US efforts to try and restrict potential transfers of sensitive technologies to China.

SARAH FERGUSON: In 2004 the Pentagon reviewed the entire war fighting capability of the US military. From the multi-billion US defence industry, the Pentagon drew up a list of the key military technologies.

SARAH FERGUSON: Number eight and the only Australian technology on the list is Metal Storm. The report also puts metal storm on a watch list of technologies that specifically must not be acquired by the enemies of the US. Jun Yang had never heard of Metal Storm until Min Qiang the Chinese bureaucrat made his offer

JUN YANG: He said Mr Yang we have a proposition for you. The Chinese liberation army wants to buy Metal Storm. It's very advanced technology. When you return to Australia we want you to purchase it for us.

SARAH FERGUSON: Jun was an unlikely recruit to become a Chinese agent of influence. In the early 1990s he was a prominent figure in the Chinese community in Australia heading a students' association here in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square a time when Australia had briefly enforced an arms embargo against China. By 2005 when Jun was on an extended business trip to China, that embargo was long over. While staying in Beijing, an old friend invited him to lunch.

JUN YANG: He's very powerful person in China his father too.

SARAH FERGUSON: What was the deal he was proposing?

JUN YANG: This business we are just take the commission, the army gave me money, no my money Min Qaing say. This is Chinese army, the money.

SARAH FERGUSON: He told you the money was being supplied by the Chinese army?

JUN YANG: Yes. Yes.

SARAH FERGUSON: Min Qiang is the Deputy General Manager of FESCO a sort of human resources organisation opened in the 1970's for foreigners wanting to do business in China intelligence sources say it was routinely used as a means of spying on foreigners. Through a translator we rang the FESCO office in Beijing and asked to speak to him. At that point Min was cooperative.

TRANSLATOR: Is that Min Qiang?

MIN QIANG: Yes.

SARAH FERGUSON: Did you ask him to purchase the Australian weapons technology Metal Storm?

SARAH FERGUSON: Min didn't deny having known Jun but said that he didn't think about Jun any more

SARAH FERGUSON: Can I ask you this? Hello? Min Qiang refused to respond to any further phone calls. Min Qiang knew that Jun was in need of money ... the deal Min was proposing was a lucrative one.

JUN YANG: Your other businesses aren't successful. But I'm sure you'll make money out of this quickly. Go back to Australia and find it. If the purchase is a success your commission will be transferred to your back account.

SARAH FERGUSON: Did you want to make money?

JUN YANG: Yes, of course.

SARAH FERGUSON: How concerned are you to restrict the technology to Australia and its allies?

IAN GILLESPIE: Very careful. At the moment we're only working with the Australian government and the US Government and to some extent our partners in Singapore and here in Australia.

SARAH FERGUSON: Min Qiang warned Jun they were in competition with other Chinese officials to secure the Metal Storm deal.

JUN YANG: Min Qiang told me that there were others engaged in this business, two officials stationed in Canberra part of the military's 'Number Three Section' involved in the acquisition of weapons.

SARAH FERGUSON: At a follow up meeting in Beijing, Min Qiang gave Jun a simple brochure with Metal Storm's contact details

JUN YANG: Min Qiang give me this one, this Metal Storm this Chinese one

JUN YANG: My wife's English is better. He wanted me to ask her to contact them when we went back to Australia.

SARAH FERGUSON: Did you think that what you were proposing was against Australia's interests?

JUN YANG: No I think, no, I'm not think.

JANE WU: My husband pushed me to call, I bring out the brochure and I call them

IAN GILLESPIE: The call came through. She said she was from some obscure organisation that had no defence connection.

JANE WU: I said 'Is it possible to buy the products?'

SARAH FERGUSON: Did he ask who you were and who you represented?

JANE WU: He asked but I didn't talk too much about this to him.

IAN GILLESPIE: I gave her the answer that the systems weren't available for sale they weren't developed to the stage that they could be but in any case I would need to know more.

SARAH FERGUSON: Did she say exactly who she was doing business for?

IAN GILLESPIE: After a bit more questioning it became clear the product, if she'd able to buy it, would have ended up in the hands of the Chinese military.

SARAH FERGUSON: It wasn't the first approach from China but Ian Gillespie doesn't want to give too much away

IAN GILLESPIE: There was one from somebody saying they represented a delegation that was in town and wanted to come round and look at the factory and see the technology and visit the factory and so on. Again another individual He was a foreign national of Chinese extraction.

SARAH FERGUSON: Do you remember who he asked for?

IAN GILLESPIE: How would one go about acquiring product and I said who for and what for and ultimately it became clear it was "interests in China" and I gave him the same answer pretty well I gave the lady.

SARAH FERGUSON: Which is?

IAN GILLESPIE: It's not available for a start. And if it was there'd be real problems for us supplying to somebody like that.

MIKE O'DWYER: It's interesting to see that the enthusiasm for the product in China isn't matched by the Government here in Australia.

SARAH FERGUSON: There are regulations that prevent Australian defence firms from exporting defence technology and intellectual property to China. But unlike the United States there are no laws here to stop the Chinese from importing the inventor himself along with his secrets and expertise. And that's exactly what the Chinese tried to do with Mike O'Dwyer. The approach began with a phone call from overseas, when he was working at the metal storm office in Washington DC.

MIKE O'DWYER: It was a defence related enquiry from a man with strong American accent so I just accepted it as a normal conversation.

SARAH FERGUSON: The man's next request was anything but normal.

MIKE O'DWYER: The gentleman spoke to me in very straight talk and short sentences and basically said look I'm not going to beat about the bush, he used those words, I'm sitting at a table in Beijing and all the people in the room with me are representatives of the People's Liberation Army and why we are making this phone call is that we want metal storm technology.

SARAH FERGUSON: Did you believe him?

MIKE O'DWYER: I was very unsure about believing him save that his identity was confirmed by a defence associated person that I knew in DC.

SARAH FERGUSON: For security reasons O'Dwyer doesn't want to reveal the man's name

MIKE O'DWYER: He said we don't need any Metal Storm weapons, we don't need any of the paper work, the history what we want is you we want you and your family in Beijing.

SARAH FERGUSON: They offered a huge cash incentive.

MIKE O'DWYER: The money that they were talking in terms of was around $US50 million when I arrive and 50 million US, 12 months later.

MIKE O'DWYER: What I was expected to do in Beijing simply was as I understood it to work with a group of people to divulge all the knowledge I possessed regarding Metal Storm to enable prototypes to be built for the weapons systems to be developed.

SARAH FERGUSON: Did you consider accepting the offer?

MIKE O'DWYER: Not only did I not accept but I felt the need of concern to report the matter to Australian Government agencies to seek advice on how to handle the situation.

SARAH FERGUSON: O'Dwyer contacted the Defence Security Authority who are responsible for all defence related security matters

MIKE O'DWYER: The response of the Australian government was to provide me with advice on how I should continue the discussions and some advice about personal safety and that's all I can say on the matter.

SARAH FERGUSON: O'Dwyer kept taking the phone calls.

MIKE O'DWYER: In all they said they were interested in those applications that had massive fire power capability.

SARAH FERGUSON: The phone calls ceased when O'Dwyer moved back to Australia but the contact from China didn't.

MIKE O'DWYER: I started to receive emails from companies in China enquiring, apparently separately, of their interest in the technology. And I responded to none but kept them on file and over a period of the next six to eight months I got as many as five or six that type of number.

SARAH FERGUSON: O'Dwyer collected the emails together and sent them to the Defence Security Branch.

MIKE O'DWYER: It was confirmed to me that they were traced back to the same source. Now the source to me was not identified but they all came from the same source. It was certainly enough for me to say 'I'm not having any dealings here.'

SARAH FERGUSON: Does that mean these companies were front companies?
My clear belief that these were front companies acting on behalf of others. Jun Yan and his wife Jane eventually abandoned their pursuit of Metal Storm when they became practitioners of Falun Gong the Chinese spiritual movement whose practitioners are routinely persecuted by the Chinese Government.

JUN YANG: I now think it's better to be a Falun Gong practitioner than to make money.
I talked it over with my wife and we decided not to carry on with this weapons business.
Now matter how much we'd make, we wouldn't do it.

JANE WU: I don't make too many decisions in my life .I think this is the biggest one. And the very strongest one. I just have the sense of that. I talked to my husband, we should stop.

SARAH FERGUSON: The decision to stop and now to expose the deal carries risks for all involved.

JUN YANG: Yes I think there should be, should be we got some danger.

SARAH FERGUSON: Does that mean you will never go back to China?

JANE WU: Yes.

SARAH FERGUSON: Jun Yang may now have decided not to do China's bidding but his is just the latest in a series of attempts by the People Liberation Army to acquire Australia's military secrets

MIKE O'DWYER: They've gone on for a long period of time, coming at the company from all sorts of quarters, surely its vital for the Australian government to take them for what they are they're serious.

SARAH FERGUSON: Metal Storm's Mike O'Dwyer warns the Chinese are confident they will succeed

MIKE O'DWYER: You could certainly sense a total resolve on his part, a total understanding looking through his eyes that sooner or later he was going to succeed.

SARAH FERGUSON: That is the PLA would get Metal Storm?

MIKE O'DWYER: Yes.