The successful Chinese hit-to-kill missile strike on one of its own weather satellites will force the United States to review its whole space strategy.

Suddenly, Washington’s spy satellites — the Pentagon’s eyes and ears — look vulnerable, even though they are partly protected by “stealth” technology. The US, instead of relying as it does on big, expensive satellites, may have to develop large numbers of minituarised versions to maximise their chances of surviving a hostile missile strike.

The Americans deploy all their super-spy satellites in the lower Earth orbit in the same space arena as the Chinese weather satellite. The ageing satellite, for which Beijing had no further use, was transformed into tens of thousands of pieces of space debris by the direct hit at 76,000km/h (47,000mph) by a Chinese KT1 medium-range rocket.

The American spy satellites need to be in the lower Earth orbit, up to 2,000km (1,250 miles) above the Earth’s surface, to provide the required high-resolution pictures for battlefield surveillance and general intelligence gathering. There is little point in their orbiting at 35,000km above the Earth, but they offer a high-value target to an enemy.

Bill Sweetman, Editor of Jane’s Space Systems and Industry, said: “The US will have to focus on smaller satellites to try to spread the risks and invalidate the threat from anti-satellite systems. For China, launching a big rocket to take out a tiny satellite would not be such an attractive proposition.”

It costs the US about $500 million (£250 million) to build a spy satellite and another $200 million to launch it. So, with one launch, described by experts as irresponsible — because of the debris it creates in space — and deliberately provocative, the Chinese have laid down their marker for a technology race.

No one is suggesting that China is about to launch an anti-satellite war, but after decades in which this type of weaponry has been largely put to one side, the Chinese have reawakened the notion of a space war by telling the world that, although it cannot compete with American technological advances, it can undermine the best in the business by adopting asymmetric tactics.

Shooting down satellites on which so many weapons systems and communications rely is relatively straightforward technology. The Americans and Russians have possessed the capability since the 1970s.

The solid-fuel KT1 rocket, known as Pioneer, measuring 13.6 metres (45ft) long and weighing just over 19 tonnes, is based on the Chinese DF31 intercontinental ballistic missile. It was launched from the exclusively military site at Xichang, in the remote southern province of Sichuan. The Americans had been aware of an imminent launch and had predicted which of the Chinese satellites was about to be hit. Rob Hewson, Editor of Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, said: “One minute the Americans were tracking this weather satellite 537 miles in space and the next it was no longer there and, instead, there were about a thousand bits of extra debris.”

The first time that Mr Hewson saw the KT1 rocket system was at a biennial airshow in China. There are three versions of the system, the KT2A having the greatest range, capable of hitting a satellite orbiting at 35,000km above the Earth. “They were rolled out as commercial launchers but we realised that they were no such thing because they were solid fuel and mobile, and clearly had a military use. We have heard nothing more about them until now,” he said.

There are other fears that the Chinese are developing a system in which a satellite would be used to destroy another satellite. They have demonstrated the technology to launch one satellite and then a second one so that they orbit together. This technology could be used in a hostile fashion by simply guiding one into the other.

For the Chinese, anti-satellite technology makes sense. Every war since the Gulf conflict in 1991 has been reliant on satellites for guiding weapons. Beijing will also be planning for potential conflict with the US over Taiwan. And the Chinese must be concerned about the credibility of their nuclear weapon systems if America deploys a large-scale missile defence network. Anti-satellite weapons could provide an extra layer of deterrence.

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