Anti-missile test heralds advent of Chinese BMD capability

摘要

On the evening of 11 January, three years to the day after its 11 January 2007 anti-satellite (ASAT) interception, China announced via state media that it had "conducted a test on ground-based mid-course missile-interception technology within its territory".rnThis test was confirmed on 12 January by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu, who added that it "was defensive in nature and targeted at no country".rnChina did not reveal any technical details regarding the test or of the type of interceptor or target mis-sile used. However, on the afternoon of 11 January US Department of Defense spokesperson Major Maureen Schumann stated: "We did not receive prior notification of the launch... . We detected two geographically separated missile launch events with an exoatmospheric collision also being observed by space-based sensors."