HomeCASIArticles


      Welcome to the Department of the Air Force's China Aerospace Studies Institute   

CASI Banner

China Aerospace Studies Institute Article Search

China Aerospace Studies Institute Articles

  • CASI Quarterly update #2 for 2025

    CASI Quarterly update#2 for 2025Friends of CASI,            This quarter saw the biennial CMSI conference, which was a terrific event despite the challenges they faced.  Kudos to the whole CMSI team and the people who wrote papers for them.  We look forward to reading them all.  We alternate

  • The Oriental Maritime Space Port: China's Sea-Based Expansion

    China’s fifth spaceport, the Oriental Maritime Space Port (OMSP) [东方航天港], also known as the Dongfang Spaceport, in Shandong Province, is a facility responsible for both the manufacture and launch of rockets. The Port represents a significant step forward in China's ambitious expansion of its space

  • China’s Lunar Space Situational Awareness—An Update

    China has three new projects for lunar space situational awareness (SSA) that will increase its ability to observe progress on the Moon and detect changes in the surrounding volume. This brief report is an update to prior research on China’s ground and space-based systems for SSA beyond

  • Tiananmen Square: The Declassified History - w/ postscript 2025

    The Chinese army crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests killed thousands of people, up to 10,000 according to released declassified UK documents. The figure was given in a secret diplomatic cable from then British ambassador to China, Sir Alan Donald written on 5 June 1989.  The cable is in

  • Checking in on Modernization and Reforms in the People’s Liberation Army

    Nearly a decade ago, in a study guide of his collected writings for the military, Chinese leader XI Jinping asserted the crucial need for a quality military force from the “grassroots” up: “Without grassroots officers and soldiers, no matter how grand the strategy, it cannot be realized, and no

  • Deterring China's Use of Force in the Space Domain

         This report examines the evolving deterrence dynamics between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the space domain. During the Cold War, nuclear deterrence helped maintain the peace between the United States and the Soviet Union, and it remains a cornerstone of U.S.

  • TAKING FLIGHT: CHINA’S MILITARY UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) INDUSTRY

         Unmanned aerial systems (UAS), including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms, are a core element of the PRC’s military modernization program. The PLA has operated UAVs since the 1950s. While aerial drones are not a new technology, contemporary UAV systems are improving rapidly due to

  • The Real Space Race: China Will Send a Crew to Orbit Mars by 2050

    The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) scientific community established China’s broad timelines for crewed Lunar and Mars missions simultaneously in 2009. At that time, the Chinese Academy of Science’s (CAS’s) 40-year technology forecast called Space Science & Technology in China: A Roadmap to

  • PLA CONCEPTS OF UAV SWARMS AND MANNED/UNMANNED TEAMING

    Manned/unmanned teaming techniques and swarm tactics are an increasingly visible aspect of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) military modernization effort, with even the slightest hints of operationalization within the PLA’s various arms attracting considerable Western media attention. Indeed,

  • Adapting to the PLA’s Near Constant Satellite Surveillance

         The U.S. and Chinese militaries have something new in common. Both must now operate under each other’s nearly constant satellite surveillance.  Luckily, the United States has a legacy tool to alert commanders of foreign satellite overflights; the U.S. military just needs to consistently use it,

  • Senior PLA Leader Military Diplomacy from October 2017 through December 2024

      This is a review of the military diplomacy activities at home and abroad conducted by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) key leaders from the 19th Party Congress in October 2017 through December 2024. Key leaders include members of the Central Military Commission (CMC)  such as the Vice Chairmen; the

  • China's Air Defense Radar Industrial Base

      This report draws on open-source reporting, Chinese-language primary sources, satellite imagery, and multiple business databases to examine China’s air defense radar capabilities and the industrial base that develops, produces, and deploys them. Key findings include:•  China’s large air defense

  • PLA Views on the Information Domain

    The “Information Age” has been around for decades.  Whether you date it to the first transistors of the World War II era, the advent of home computing, or the rise of the internet, the “Information Age” has impacted all of our lives, in deeply important ways and warfare is no exception to this rule.

  • Ongoing Organizational Reforms of the PLAAF

    From the chapter by Dr. Brendan S. Mulvaney and Ken Allen on the Ongoing Organizational Reforms of the PLAAF from Modernising the People’s Liberation Army: Aspiring to be a Global Military Power (available