The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in its report “Challenges to Security in Space,” warns that space is increasingly contested by major powers — primarily the United States, China and Russia — and that new military capabilities are emerging which can threaten, degrade or destroy other nations’ satellites and space services.
Who is doing what?
The DIA identifies China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as the principal competitors. It says China is the most technologically advanced while Russia appears the most willing to use aggressive measures. The report notes that China has more than tripled its annual space launches over the past decade: 22 launches in 2016 compared with 93 launches in 2025.
According to the DIA, Beijing views space as central to U.S. and allied operations and treats the domain as an offensive military arena, a perspective that has shaped elements of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) planning and campaigns.
Types of threats described
The report lists multiple capabilities and systems of concern:
- Anti‑satellite (ASAT) technologies, ranging from kinetic destruction to sophisticated jamming and cyber operations.
- Directed energy systems: the DIA states that “by the late 2020s, China may field space‑based directed energy systems and higher‑powered ground‑based directed energy systems capable of threatening satellites in higher orbits.”
- Ground‑based lasers: Russia’s Peresvet system is intended to dazzle the optical sensors of adversary satellites to mask the movement of Russia’s strategic missile systems.
- On‑orbit objects and interactions: Russian and Chinese satellites have conducted test activities and behaviors that could enable them to approach, follow or otherwise interfere with other countries’ satellites. The report notes that in 2023 a Chinese spaceplane‑like vehicle “released and interacted with an object.”
Satellite‑on‑satellite incidents and concerning launches
The DIA provides several concrete incidents that illustrate active interference between rival nations’ spacecraft:
- 2019: Russia launched Cosmos 2542, which released a second satellite, Cosmos 2543; Cosmos 2543 then followed a U.S. national security satellite and approached it multiple times at distances that could create potentially dangerous operating conditions.
- February 2022: Russia launched a satellite named Cosmos that Moscow said was testing space radiation effects on electronics; it was placed into an unusual and isolated orbit not used by other spacecraft.
- Kinetic co‑orbital weapons: Russia is developing Burevestnik, described in the report as a developmental, air‑launched co‑orbital ASAT weapon intended to ‘kill’ spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Space nuclear threats
The DIA also highlights Russian experimentation related to nuclear effects in space. A nuclear detonation in space would create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could immediately affect satellites within range and could also impact civilian infrastructure. The report stresses that a nuclear detonation could be tailored to affect satellites in most orbits: LEO (commercial and reconnaissance satellites), GEO (critical communications), and MEO (navigation and timing satellites).
Why this matters going forward
As governments and companies invest in space‑based data centers and potentially lunar infrastructure, space will gain in strategic and commercial value and become an increasingly contested domain. The DIA report provides a clearer picture of hardware already in orbit and systems likely to arrive soon, which has implications for military, government and civilian space infrastructures. The author of the note that accompanied the report also raises the possibility that, in the longer term, artificial intelligence systems could seek to control such space assets, introducing additional risks.
The document
The DIA has released the full, more‑than‑100‑page report “Challenges to Security in Space,” available via Defense Intelligence Agency press materials and as a PDF.
