US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he was very troubled by a recent Chinese anti-satellite weapons test because of what it says about Beijing's strategic outlook. China on January 11 shot down one of its own orbiting weather satellites in space with a ballistic missile, acknowledging the test nearly two weeks later only after it provoked an international outcry. "I think that the Chinese ASAT test is very troubling," Gates told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
"And perhaps what is as troubling as the technical achievement is how one interprets it as a part of … their own strategic outlook, and how they would anticipate using that kind of a capability in the event of a conflict, and the consequences for us of that," he said.
General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators he did not believe China intended to use such an anti-satellite weapon anytime soon.
"On the other hand, it is a unique capacity in the world. And we need to, in a very separate conversation, take a look at where are we with regard to that capacity, where should we be, and if there is a gap, how we close it," he said.
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