Outpost early warning satellites

According to Chinese media reports, China began to develop early warning satellites as early as the 1990s. After entering 2010, China has launched several early warning satellites with certain global early warning capabilities. China first proposed "improving strategic early warning capabilities" in the 2015 national defense white paper, and the need to improve early warning capabilities and rapid response capabilities must be supported by early warning satellites.

An article published in the March 2016 Science and Technology Daily pointed out that China has two categories of military remote sensing satellites: the "Squadron" series of reconnaissance satellites and the "Outpost" series of infrared early warning satellites. It is said that this is the first time that China has publicly confirmed the existence of early warning satellites. The article believed that the most likely to launch China-Japan-India missiles against China on the global arena. Considering that US ballistic missile submarines may attack China in the North Atlantic, it is necessary for China to deploy an early warning satellite over the Central Pacific, North Atlantic and East India-like equators to achieve global missile launch monitoring.

On March 22, 2016, according to the "Science and Technology Daily" report, China had two major types of military remote sensing satellites, the Jianbing series of reconnaissance satellites and the Outpost series of infrared early warning satellites. This was the first time that China had publicly confirmed the existence of early warning satellites. According to the article, China's high-resolution 4th synchronous orbit optical remote sensing satellite is equipped with an infrared camera, although its ground maximum resolution is 400 meters, which is much higher than the 3.58 kilometers of the DSP early warning satellite, but this is the area of a single picture.

The high-resolution 4 single picture area is 160,000 square kilometers, and the DSP scans an area of 100 million square kilometers. If the "fisheye lens" is used for the "high score 4", the image scanning area is expanded to be the same as the latter, and the resolution will also be greatly reduced. However, the "high score 4" provides a basic platform after all, as long as the satellite's optical lens, infrared camera, and control system are slightly adjusted, it is an early warning satellite.

The article believed that the countries in the world today that are most likely to launch medium- and long-range missile attacks against China are the United States, Japan and India. As US ballistic missile submarines may launch attacks from the North Atlantic to China, China must also deploy three early warning satellites deployed over the equator of the Central Pacific, North Atlantic and East Indian Oceans to monitor global missile launches.

In this regard, Chinese Military researcher Lan Shunzheng said: "There are very few publicly available information about the 'Outpost' series of satellites, but it is estimated that its performance should be similar to the US Defense Support Program satellite, not as good as the US space-based infrared system. It is certain that the future will follow China. With the development of the anti-missile system, the space-based infrared missile early warning satellite will usher in a relatively large development."