Me: No Evidence To Back Up ASAT Claims in Chinese Military Power

Leonard David at Space.com let me unload on DOD’s Chinese Military Power, which claims China intends to field ASATs:

No evidence to back up claims

Jeffrey Lewis, a Research Fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy in College Park, Maryland, is skeptical of some of the Pentagon’s assertions.

The important point to ask, according to Lewis, is how does this report compare to previous years?

“In general, the 2005 edition is much more detailed than previous reports. But not when it comes to Chinese ASAT capabilities,” Lewis told SPACE.com. “Although the 2005 edition does flatly state—as have previous reports—that China intends to field ASAT systems, the 2005 edition omits most of the evidence cited in previous reports, including discredited claims about the development of a parasite microsatellite and a ground-based direct ascent ASAT that was supposed to be fielded as early as this year.”

Lewis said that, although the U.S. Department of Defense is still willing to assert that China intends to deploy ASATs, “it’s pretty clear they don’t have any evidence to back that up.”

I’ve blogged about the parasite microsatellite and direct-ascent ASAT, as well as the Zhang Liying fiasco.

I’ll be on a C-SPAN roundtable Sunday morning at 9:00 am with the Heritage Foundation’s John Tkacik.