China Orbiting 400 Satellites, Heading for 1,000 by 2030, US Space Command Chief Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – China now has 400 satellites in orbit, second only in number to the United States and it is projected to have at least one thousand of them deployed by the end of this decade, Space Command chief Army General James Dickinson said in congressional testimony on Tuesday.

Dickinson said China has already developed “robust and capable” space services, including space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (IRS) systems, and are also upgrading their space launch vehicles and satellite navigation constellations.

The Chinese BeiDou navigation system is now globally operational, he also said.

China is developing a broad complement of jamming and cyberspace capabilities, directed energy weapons, on-orbit capabilities, and ground-based anti-satellite missiles and its ISR satellites are capable of providing electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar imagery, as well as electronic intelligence and signals intelligence data, he added.

Sourse: sputniknews.com