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China Aerospace Studies Institute Articles

  • Chinese Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications

         The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) and China’s Nuclear Deterrence Capabilities Have Grown Considerably in the Past 15 Years.     Originally, the PLARF was constructed as purely a delivery force for China’s nuclear weapons. However, that role has expanded dramatically in recent

  • Coercive Space Activities: The View From PRC Sources

    The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is developing space technologies, in part, to deter and compel the United States from taking actions that Beijing deems counter to its national security interests. PRC coercive space efforts are intended to achieve effects in, from, and to space. People’s

  • In Their Own Words: On Maritime Strategic Access

    The “In Their Own Words” series is dedicated to translations of Chinese documents in order to help non-Mandarin speaking audiences access and understand Chinese thinking. CASI would like to thank all of those involved in this effort. In the “In Their Own Words” series, CASI and its collaborators aim

  • Organization of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC)

         Established in 1951, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is China’s largest aviation enterprise, responsible for producing essentially all of China’s domestic military aircraft, UAVs, and helicopters, as well as a wide range of civilian aircraft and other aviation and non-aviation

  • Dragons Fly

    Dragons Fly! Dr. Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the China Aerospace Studies Institute at Air University, looks at China’s 2023 in the air and what’s likely in 2024. Plus this week’s headlines in #airpower. From the Defense & Aerospace Report 

  • China-Russia Nuclear Industry Cooperation

         In May 2021, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping presided over a groundbreaking ceremony for their countries’ biggest joint nuclear energy project to date: the construction of four new nuclear reactors in China’s Jiangsu and Liaoning Provinces. The 20 billion

  • Hacked in China

    The latest U.S. cyber strategy has struck a nerve with Xi Jinping.A foreign government's response to a U.S. strategy document rarely earns front page coverage, but in the case of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) recent reaction to the U.S. government's new cyber strategy, we

  • PLA Counterspace Command and Control

    This report started as an effort to answer two questions about each of six counterspace weapon classes typically referenced in unclassified counterspace reports.  The weapons discussed in this report include: Direct Assent Antisatellite Missiles, Directed Energy Counterspace Weapons, Terrestrially

  • Enhancing the Battleverse: China's Digital Twin Strategy

    Josh Baughman provides a talk titled "Enhancing the Battleverse: China's Digital Twin Strategy" at #HammerCon 2023 (the second annual national convention of the Military Cyber Professionals Association (MCPA)). Read the paper he published on the topic:

  • Survey of PRC Drone Swarm Inventions

    This work builds upon CASI’s 2018 The PLA’s Unmanned Aerial Systems: New Capabilities for a “New Era” of Chinese Military Power by Elsa Kania1 and is intended to specifically address the Chinese capacity for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm innovation, tactics, and mission sets.In December 2018,

  • CASI Quarterly update #3 for 2023

    CASI Quarterly update#3 for 2023Friends of CASI,            While we watch the budget work its way through the process, we are still hard at work.  We wanted to take a chance and update you on all of the things CASI has been doing over the last three months. Personnel- We continue to work through

  • UK Intelligence & Security report- "China"

    While the U.S. government shutdown works its way through the American political system, we thought we would highlight an important report from our closest ally and friends across the Atlantic, from the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament of the United Kingdom, entitled simply

  • PLAN Special Mission Aviation Air Base Renovation and Expansion Activities

    The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Naval Aviation forces have been undergoing a large scale divestment of its shore based aviation capabilities through 2023. However, since then, PLAN Aviation has clearly sought to retain not only is fixed wing anti-submarine warfare (ASW) assets, but also its

  • PRC Media’s Coverage of Mobility Guardian Projects Self-Confidence

    From 5 to 21 July 2023 Air Mobility Command conducted the exercise Mobility Guardian 2023 (MG23). MG23 was the largest iteration of the exercise, and it was the first iteration to be conducted outside the USA. It involved detachments from seven countries, and it spanned the Pacific Ocean

  • Trends That Impact Perceptions of the Chinese Space Program

    The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) intention to allow civilian astronauts and non-state-owned enterprise (SOE) companies to participate in the Chinese Space Station (CSS) are two trends that will probably change the global image of the Chinese space program, but which risk being overlooked with