The militarization of house encompasses not solely the deployment of weapons in house but additionally the potential army use of the house area, together with ground-based infrastructure. Most research on the militarization of house restrict themselves to analyzing the actions of main powers within the house sector, primarily specializing in the house race between the USA and China.
Whereas it’s true that China’s house program has positioned the nation because the second international energy in house, it’s vital to notice that Beijing’s major methods embody investments, innovation, and increasing collaboration with nations within the International South. This technique generates business advantages and seeks to create diplomatic coalitions that strengthen China’s affect in worldwide establishments. It additionally permits China to determine ground-based and satellite tv for pc infrastructure in areas resembling Latin America and Africa. Given this improvement, questions come up about whether or not China’s bilateral satellite tv for pc cooperation and related infrastructure with International South nations are a part of a broader Chinese language worldwide infrastructure and the strategic implications this might have for the USA.
For the reason that Nineteen Eighties, China has maintained partnerships with nations within the International South within the satellite tv for pc sector. In 1984, China started collaborating with Brazil on this sector, formally launching the China-Brazil Earth Sources Satellite tv for pc (CBERS) program in 1988. Later, China expanded collaboration to different Latin American nations, together with Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. Since 2001, China has prolonged its partnerships to incorporate nations in Africa. It established its first floor station in Swakopmund, Namibia and has since grown its satellite tv for pc and infrastructure cooperation to incorporate Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia, and different nations within the area.
These collaborations embody promoting and collectively developing communications and Earth statement satellites; developing receiving and management stations, meeting and integration facilities; providing personnel coaching applications; offering financing; and establishing mechanisms for scientific and technological cooperation. China frames these collaborations as a part of its efforts to advertise social and financial improvement in these areas whereas concurrently combining business pursuits with enhancing its strategic capabilities.
We must always not assume that the analyzed amenities or satellites are getting used for army functions. However we should always take note of their potential twin use and the capabilities their mixture might present China. Thought-about collectively, for instance, that the bottom infrastructure in Argentina, Namibia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and different nations can present higher geographic protection and broaden alternatives for telemetry, monitoring, and command (TT&C) capabilities. It could possibly additionally scale back latency in knowledge reception and facilitate knowledge distribution. Moreover, integrating them with different techniques might contribute to house situational consciousness (SSA) and broaden capabilities for monitoring house objects.
Not too long ago, U.S. Secretary of the Air Power Troy Meink confirmed that the USA has “house management weapons” deployed in house. That is an instance of the development towards the militarization of house, an space through which China and Russia have additionally demonstrated capabilities. In 2007, China examined its anti-satellite (ASAT) system, destroying one in all its personal satellites. This maneuver shocked People because of the expertise China developed and the numerous quantity of particles produced by the collision. Moreover, India carried out an ASAT take a look at in 2019, and Russia did the identical in 2021. Different nations, resembling Australia, France, Japan, Iran, Israel, North Korea, South Korea, and the UK, are creating counterspace applied sciences. With the rising variety of actors, rising improvement of kinetic and non-kinetic weapons expertise, and reliance on the house area for troop deployment and intelligence gathering, the militarization of outer house appears inevitable. The query here’s what strategic benefits China’s rising house infrastructure within the International South might present.
Amongst different examples, two floor stations in Namibia reveal various levels of management over the house system. The Windhoek floor knowledge receiving station, which opened in February 2026, was designed to obtain and course of knowledge from remote-sensing satellites. In keeping with the Chinese language ambassador to Namibia, Namibian personnel will handle this floor station. Nonetheless, Chinese language personnel will stay on website to supply ongoing technical help to the technicians they’ve educated. Moreover, the station receives knowledge from CBERS-4, combining knowledge reception and processing with Chinese language technical help and knowledge reception from a Sino-Brazilian satellite tv for pc.
The Swakopmund station, which was additionally constructed by China in Namibia in 2001, gives TT&C. It will also be used to trace satellites flying over the South Atlantic. It’s managed instantly by the Xi’an Satellite tv for pc Management Heart, which is linked to China’s army house constructions. Whereas the Windhoek station focuses on receiving and processing Earth statement knowledge, the Swakopmund station gives satellite tv for pc TT&C capabilities.
China has even donated a satellite tv for pc to Ethiopia. The ETRSS-1 is Ethiopia’s first distant sensing satellite tv for pc. DFH Satellite tv for pc Firm Ltd., a subsidiary of the China Academy of House Expertise (CAST), designed and developed the satellite tv for pc. CAST is a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Expertise Company (CASC), which is a part of China’s house and protection industrial system. Since 2012, the Entoto Observatory & Analysis Heart has operated as a floor station in Ethiopia. The Entoto Observatory is a multisatellite floor receiving station that helps ETRSS-1 operations. It additionally receives knowledge from different satellites, together with CBERS-4, Gaofen-1, Gaofen-3, Gaofen-5, and GaoJing-1. The latter are Chinese language satellites. Entoto has had a brand new antenna since 2025 that’s chargeable for ingesting high-resolution imagery.
China’s collaboration with Egypt can also be noteworthy. China funded and helped construct the MisrSat-2 Earth statement satellite tv for pc, which was launched in late 2023. China additionally constructed the Satellite tv for pc Integration, Meeting, and Testing Heart (AITC) close to Cairo. Thus, their cooperation encompasses earth statement, floor stations, TT&C, knowledge functions, and satellite tv for pc meeting, integration, and testing capabilities. China has entry to shared floor laboratories and knowledge processing facilities in Egypt. This allows China to broaden its worldwide satellite tv for pc picture evaluation infrastructure in a geopolitically delicate area such because the Suez Canal.
The deep-space monitoring station in Neuquén, Argentina, is essentially the most outstanding instance of a Chinese language floor station positioned exterior of China with dual-use potential. Established via agreements between the Nationwide Fee for House Actions (CONAE), the China Satellite tv for pc Launch and Monitoring Management Common (CLTC), and the Neuquén provincial authorities, it includes a 35-meter antenna and operates within the S, X, and Ka bands. It helps the Chinese language lunar program and gives TT&C providers. Its technical traits might allow dual-use functions, together with satellite tv for pc monitoring, intelligence gathering, and the interception of satellite tv for pc alerts, relying on the capabilities employed. Moreover, the station has institutional ties to the CLTC and the Xi’an Satellite tv for pc Management Heart.
Collectively, the reception of the Sino-Brazilian CBERS-4 satellite tv for pc at amenities in Africa resembling Windhoek, the multisatellite capability at Entoto, the TT&C station in Swakopmund, and the deep-space station in Neuquén reveal that initiatives developed inside bilateral frameworks can have purposeful connections that reach past bilateral collaborations with China. These amenities might kind a world infrastructure that would offer China with operational benefits when it comes to geographic protection, knowledge reception and distribution, TT&C, and monitoring house objects in areas such because the South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and varied areas of the African continent. Integrating these capabilities might contribute to broader House Area Consciousness (SDA). Each the USA and Europe ought to look at the potential strategic implications of this infrastructure extra systematically.