Lawmakers urge US space vigilance after China blast

WASHINGTON, Mar 8 (Reuters) The United States must make clear to China it intends to defend its space assets and enlist allies to counter possible threats from China, which recently tested an anti-satellite missile, U.S. lawmakers said today.

The leading figures in security policy in the Democratic and Republican parties called for policy changes after China's Jan. 11 use of a ground-based ballistic missile to knock out an old Chinese weather satellite 540 miles above Earth in a test of antisatellite warfare capability.

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona said China's test underscored ''real and growing'' threats to US space security that required the drawing of ''bright lines'' to deter further such moves by the Chinese or others.

The United States must ''clearly state out our interests in space and unambiguously declare our intent to defend those interests,'' said the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.

He said Washington must put into place measures to protect satellites, sensors and telescopes in space to detect threats and a production system that would allow quick replacement of destroyed orbiters.

''We have to create, in my view, a major force programme for space similar to how we budget for special operations,'' Kyl said in a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

He said the United States should also explore ''offensive counterspace'' measures, but acknowledged these would be controversial at home and abroad.

California Democratic Rep. Jane Harman called China's blast the ''single messiest space event ever'' because it scattered space debris that could damage other satellites.

''The test should focus the mind on the fact that they're going to be quite aggressive here,'' said the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment of the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.

Echoing Kyl, Harman called for US cooperation with allies in Europe, Japan, Israel and other states with significant space assets to forge a ''shared response that is very careful and very firm.'' Amid criticism from the United States, European Union, India and Japan and others, China confirmed the blast 12 days afterward but denied it was seeking an arms race in space.

REUTERS DKS PM0210