Chinese satellites seen ‘dogfighting’, US Space Force official says

China has been observed conducting coordinated manoeuvres with its satellites, a top US Space Force official says, describing it as “dogfighting in space” and warning that the “capability gap” with the United States has narrowed.

The US Space Force observed “five different objects in space manoeuvring in and out and around each other in synchrony and in control”, General Michael Guetlein, the USSF’s vice-chief of space operations, told a conference in Washington.

“That’s what we call dogfighting in space. They are practising tactics, techniques and procedures to do on-orbit space operations from one satellite to another,” he said at the annual McAleese Defence Programmes Conference.

Guetlein did not say who was conducting the manoeuvres but the USSF later confirmed to American media that the satellites he mentioned were Chinese. It said three Shiyan-24C experimental satellites and two Shijian-6 05A/B experimental space objects had carried out “a series of proximity operations in 2024” in low-Earth orbit, and that the observation was based on commercially available information.

A dogfight usually refers to close-range aerial combat between fighter jets involving complex manoeuvres. But in space, it is far more difficult and slower for a spacecraft to manoeuvre, and the lack of atmosphere and friction also makes it more costly as the spacecraft has to expel its own mass to generate thrust.

This is the first time multiple Chinese satellites have been observed carrying out synchronised movements, though China has carried out many “rendezvous proximity operations” where spacecraft move close to each other and interact in space. There have also been reports of Chinese satellites approaching and “stalking” US space assets.