U.S. Intelligence: China Could Put Laser Weapons in Space by 2030

A new United States intelligence report warns that China is developing energy weapons and spaceplanes that it could use for military operations in outer space, with the capability of using directed-energy weapons in orbit by the end of the 2020s. The US Defence Intelligence Agency DIA report, published on Sunday, includes a rare image of the newly developed reusable spaceplane.

S. government has offered an estimated timeline for China's development of space-based energy weapons. Beijing already has established earthbound energy weapons, which are capable of disrupting, degrading, and/or damaging satellites, and will also be stronger by the end of the 2020s, with the ability to impact satellites beyond low Earth orbit. These new space-based energy weapons would add an even more dangerous new disruptive capability to that arsenal.