Later at the same site:
“A fully developed and miniaturized FEL could be employed in numerous capacities. Not only could it be employed as a high-powered system at fixed sites, but as lower-power dazzling systems mounted on mobile units and dispersed around the nation. A system able to be emplaced within a satellite laser ranging station would be an interesting weapon as well. Laser ranging systems use pulsed rather than continuous beams to ensure that they are not adversely affecting their targets. A FEL with such a “firing mode” would make a credible dual-use system that could conceivably be deployed at existing ranging sites with little or no knowledge until it was required to switch over to a war footing.
CONCLUSION
In this case, open source imagery and source material seems to corroborate the 2009 report that China has fielded some sort of ASAT system in Xinjiang province. Whether it possesses the power output to destroy a satellite is not known, but the evidence does seem to indicate that the system is in place, that it is a product of AIOFM and CAEP, and that it is likely a FEL. With the operationally tested direct-ascent ASAT providing that capability, however, destruction is not necessarily a must-have capability. May we live in interesting times, indeed.
ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION
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