The test was carried out early Monday from the Xichang Space Launch center and was identified by officials as the new Dong Ning-2 ASAT missile.

The ASAT test comes a week after China protested the release of the Pentagon’s annual report on the Chinese military buildup that mentioned Beijing’s development of anti-satellite weapons.

The Free Beacon first disclosed the existence of the new missile in October and a missile researcher reported in January that a new ASAT missile was being readied for its first test.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was asked if China conducted an ASAT test during a briefing for reporters in Beijing on Tuesday. He did not deny that it was carried out.

“I am not aware of the development that you described,” he said. “China has consistently advocated the peaceful use of outer space and is opposed to militarizing and conducting an arms race in outer space.”

Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Wilkinson said: “We don’t have a comment on it as we don’t discuss intelligence.”

A U.S. official familiar with intelligence reports said the DN-2, as a high earth-orbit attack missile, is a significant advance for China’s program of developing asymmetric warfare capabilities for use against the United States. Others include cyber-warfare capabilities and anti-ship ballistic missiles.

It could not be learned if the latest ASAT test involved an impact with a target satellite.

A second official said the Chinese apparently disguised the ASAT missile test as a space exploration experiment. The website of the National Space Science Center, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported Monday that a sounding rocket was used in a high-altitude scientific exploration test.

“This experiment used a high-altitude space-exploring rocket, Langmuir probe, high-energetic particle detectors, magnetometers and barium-powder release experimental apparatus and other payload of scientific exploration to test and measure the ionosphere, the high-energy particles and magnetic fields of the near-Earth space strength and structure,” the notice said.

China in 2007 conducted its first successful hit-to-kill ASAT test against a weather satellite in low-earth orbit. The impact left tens of thousands of pieces of debris in orbit that continue to threaten both manned and unmanned spacecraft.

Defense officials have said China’s ASAT weapons, including missile interceptors, lasers, and electronic jammers, are designed to disrupt satellite communications and navigation systems used extensively by the U.S. military in conducting joint warfare.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stated in written answers to questions during his confirmation hearing in January that the United States would seek to avoid engaging in hostilities in space.

However, Hagel revealed that U.S. space policy calls for “the secretary of defense to develop capabilities, plans and options to deter, defend against, and, if necessary, defeat efforts to interfere with or attack U.S. or allied space systems.”

The statement was the clearest indication that the Pentagon is preparing to develop “counterspace” weapons in response to Chinese anti-satellite weapons.

“The chances are good this is indeed an ASAT test as it was launched from the Xichang Space Launch Center, the same launch site used for the January 2007 successful SC-19 ASAT interception of a Chinese weather satellite,” said Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. Xichang is located in southern Sichuan Province.

Fisher said Chinese Internet reports stated that the ASAT test of what U.S. official say was a DN-2 may have up to four stages and included one or two liquid-fueled upper stages to provide greater thrust as the missile closed in on a target.

“While there so far has been no report of a successful interception, even a very near miss would serve to validate this new [People’s Liberation Army] ASAT system,” Fisher said.

A validated DN-2 ASAT system would provide the Chinese military with the capability to “degrade or severely damage the U.S. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system,” he said.

“This is not merely a threat against some American military satellites, but a threat to a what has become a vital part of the global electronic infrastructure, affecting global commerce and financial flows, to your personal finances that contribute to personal freedom.”

Fisher said China has been “preaching” that other states should disarm while Beijing secretly builds space weaponry at the same time it has denied being engaged in the space arms buildup.

“In the face of such a threat, the United States simply has no choice but to pursue symmetric capabilities to deter Chinese attacks in space, but also to consider its own requirements for space superiority,” he said.

The major concern for Pentagon war planners is that China, with an arsenal of around two dozen anti-satellite missiles, could severely disrupt U.S. command-and-control systems, intelligence-gathering satellites, and navigation satellites used to guide precision guided missiles.

Security analyst Gregory Kulacki said in an online posting in January that the ASAT test was expected as early as that month.

“Given these high-level administration concerns and past Chinese practice, there seems to be a strong possibility China will conduct an ASAT test within the next few weeks,” Kulacki, a Chinese-language speaker with the Union of Concerned Scientists stated.

Defense officials disclosed to the Free Beacon that the DN-2 test was initially planned for last fall, but was delayed by the Chinese over concerns that the test would upset President Barack Obama’s reelection bid.

While details of the DN-2 are not known, U.S. officials said it is expected to be a high earth-orbit interceptor capable of destroying strategic navigation, communication, or intelligence satellites by ramming into them at high speeds.

The DN-2 is said to be capable of hitting targets in high-earth orbit between 12,000 and 22,236 miles above earth. Many military, intelligence, and commercial satellites orbit at that altitude.

A Pentagon-State Department report to Congress last year on export controls stated that in addition to ground-launched ASAT missiles, China is building high-technology kinetic and direct energy weapons for ASAT use.

According to U.S. officials, the Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Security and Trusted Computing at Wuhan’s Computer Science School in central China’s Hubei Province is the latest cyber warfare research and attack center to be identified from within China’s secret cyber warfare program.

The Pentagon’s latest annual report on China’s military, made public last week, for the first time confirmed that Chinese cyber attacks on the U.S. government appeared “attributable directly to the Chinese government and military.”

A report by the private cyber security firm Mandiant in February identified China’s main military cyber espionage group near Shanghai as Unit 61398, part of the People’s Liberation Army’s 2nd Bureau of the General Staff Department’s 3rd Department, known as 3PLA.

The Project 2049 Institute, a Virginia-based think tank, revealed a separate Chinese military cyberwarfare unit called the Beijing North Computing Center, also part of the 3PLA, four months before publication of the Mandiant report.

According to U.S. officials, the Key Laboratory, located about 425 miles west of the Chinese port city of Shanghai, is one of three computer science laboratories at the university. It was set up in 2008 and is considered one of the premier information security and cyber warfare centers at the university.

Wuhan’s Computer Science School has trained more than 760 people who currently are in the Chinese military and government over the past decade.

The lab received funding from several Chinese military elements, including 3PLA.

Another Wuhan University computer science laboratory was identified by the officials as the Information Network Attack and Defense Research Center.

The Key Lab is noted for its development of unique computer warfare software platform called the SimpleISES Information Security Experiment System that is used in training and conducting cyber attacks.

The system can be used by 20 students at a time to conduct cyber attacks on networks. SimpleISES was developed by Beijing Simpleware Technology Co., Ltd. and is used at more than 30 universities throughout China.

Experts say the system is believed to be a key element in the massive Chinese-military related cyber attacks against the Pentagon and the U.S. government, as well as China cyber attacks in other nations.

Mark Stokes, a former Air Force officer and Pentagon specialist on China now with the Project 2049 Institute, said he was not familiar with the Key Lab. Stokes coauthored a 2011 report that revealed one of 12 3PLA operational bureaus is located in Wuhan.

“There are several of these kinds of state and defense labs,” Stokes said in an email.

A computer security expert who asked not to be identified by name said Simple ISES “seems to be basically a teaching system for training hackers.”

“If Wuhan is involved, then they are using the system to train next generation university students to be hackers,” the expert said. “It seems that it is a modular to assist in the development and testing of new attacks.”

The Pentagon’s annual report, which was dismissed by Chinese government spokesmen as “groundless,” stated that in 2012 “numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military.”

“These intrusions were focused on exfiltrating information,” the report said. “China is using its computer network exploitation (CNE) capability to support intelligence collection against the U.S. diplomatic, economic, and defense industrial base sectors that support U.S. national defense programs.”

According to the Pentagon report, cyber attacks are aimed at information that could benefit China’s defense and high-technology industry, as well as “policymaker interest in U.S. leadership thinking on key China issues, and military planners building a picture of U.S. network defense networks, logistics, and related military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.”

“Although this alone is a serious concern, the accesses and skills required for these intrusions are similar to those necessary to conduct computer network attacks,” the report said.

China plans to use cyber warfare capabilities in future wars by primarily gathering data for intelligence and computer network attacks.

Additionally, cyber warfare attacks will be employed to limit enemy action or slow military responses “by targeting network-based logistics, communications, and commercial activities,” the report said.

Cyber warriors also will be coupled with conventional military attacks as a “force multiplier” during war or crises, the report said.

The Pentagon report said Chinese military writings contain extensive reports on cyber warfare doctrine. Two key writings were identified as “Science of Strategy,” and “Science of Campaigns,” which outlined how to achieve “information superiority” in warfare that would allow a weaker power to defeat a stronger foe.

“China’s military continues to explore the role of military operations in cyberspace as a feature of modern warfare and continues to develop doctrine, training and exercises which emphasize information technology and operations,” David Helvey, deputy assistant defense secretary for East Asia, told reporters in releasing the report May 6.

Zhang Huanguo, an official involved in the laboratory, did not return emails seeking comment.

In addition to Zhang, other Chinese who are part of the Key Lab include Lina Wang, who heads the unit, Du Ruiying, and Fu Jianming, who is known to be involved in information attack and defense activities.

Zhang is considered the liaison with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Key Lab in the past received funding from the PLA Information Engineering University, the General Staff Department Confidential Bureau, and the 3PLA.

The PLA Unit 61478, a secret cyber warfare unit, provided other funding for the lab.

BEIJING (Reuters) – The eldest brother of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng said he was beaten up on Thursday by two men he said were government-hired thugs, which would mark a sharp escalation in harassment meted out to Chen’s family.

The treatment of Chen Guangcheng’s family has received prominent attention from the United States in recent weeks and could cause further friction between Beijing and Washington over human rights.

Chen Guangfu said he was beaten by unidentified men in what appeared to be the latest incident of harassment of Chen Guangcheng’s family since mid-April, around the anniversary of his escape from 19 months of house arrest.

Chen Guangfu, 56, said two young men punched and chased him as he was heading home to his village of Dongshigu in the eastern province of Shandong.

The men, who appeared well-dressed and in their 20s, jumped out of a black car and hit him repeatedly on the head, he said. He said he was not seriously injured in the beating that lasted several minutes.

“I started shouting and running away from them at the same time,” Chen told Reuters by telephone, about 10 minutes after the incident happened.

“This is a continuation of what has been happening to me since April 18,” Chen said, adding that he believed the men were government-hired thugs. “My feeling is that they didn’t appear to be farmers.”

Police in Linyi city, which has authority over the village of Dongshigu, could not be reached for comment.

Chen Guangfu recently told Reuters that security personnel had carried out a nightly harassment campaign, throwing rocks, bottles and dead poultry at his house for 12 nights in a row.

Chen Guangcheng, who made international headlines last year when he escaped house arrest and spent 20 hours on the run before finding refuge at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, called on the United States last week to ensure his family in China was treated fairly.

Chen Guangcheng’s decision to take refuge in the U.S. embassy was deeply embarrassing for China, and led to a diplomatic tussle before China allowed him to fly to the United States with his wife and child.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tried calling Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss a nephew of Chen’s who has been imprisoned but Wang was not available, the State Department said last week.

Chen Guangfu’s jailed son, Chen Kegui, had been diagnosed with appendicitis and urgently needs medical care, Chen Guangfu said, but he had not been offered surgery for the condition.

Chen Guangcheng is a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions. He was jailed for four years on charges that he and his supporters said were spurious, and then held in his village home for 19 months after being released.

“The U.S. Department of Defense has issued such reports year after year, pointing an accusing finger at China’s legitimate and normal defense buildup and spreading the so-called ‘theory of China’s military threat,’” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

“This is not conducive to mutual trust and cooperation between the two sides. We resolutely oppose this, and we have made representations to the American side.”

Hua took particular issue with the Pentagon report’s first formal disclosure of what has been known widely in classified circles for over a decade: The Chinese government and military were directly linked to aggressive cyber espionage and cyber reconnaissance attacks on U.S. computer networks.

“Regarding the issue of cyberattacks,” she said. “the Chinese side has made its position clear many times: Cybersecurity involves government and commercial secrets and personal privacy. It is not just the government, enterprises, and citizens in the United States who take this seriously, but the government, enterprises, and citizens in China also take this seriously. The Chinese side resolutely opposes all forms of hacker attacks and is ready to have calm and constructive dialogue with the American side on the issue of cybersecurity. But unwarranted accusations and hyping will only ruin the efforts and atmosphere for dialogue between the two sides.”

That reference to the “ruin” of dialogue is being viewed by some defense officials as an indication that China may cut or curtail military exchanges, a key Pentagon priority in seeking to “build trust” with the Chinese military.

“Groundless accusations and speculation will only damage both sides’ efforts to talk,” she said.

That propaganda theme was bolstered by a Xinhua news agency report quoting a military “researcher” at the Academy of Military Sciences of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Wang Xinjun.

Wang said the sections on Chinese military cyber capabilities were irresponsible and harmful to “mutual trust.”

He then asserted that it is “common sense that you cannot determine sources of cyber attacks only through IP addresses” and then charged that “some people in the Pentagon still prefer believing they are from China as they always bear a sense of rivalry.”

“The groundless accusations reflect the U.S. distrust of China,” he said.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert was asked about a report Tuesday in the Washington Free Beacon about the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military that revealed it is building two new classes of missile submarines in addition to the eight nuclear missile submarines and six attack submarines currently being deployed.

“They are absolutely capable,” Greenert said of the Chinese navy during an appearance before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.

On China’s unique, aircraft-carrier killing DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, Greenert said the U.S. Navy is working on ways to counter the missile during the “kill chain” involving the missile, its maneuvering warheads, and the sensors and guidance used in targeting.

“In other words to do such a thing you have to have the sensor, you have to detect a ship, you have to recognize it is a ship, you have to then be confident that you got it well enough, then you have a tracking solution, the you’ve got to be comfortable you can launch, it launches, it goes in the right direction, then it has to adjust itself,” he said. “So at that point you can spoof it, you can jam it, you can try to shoot it down, and as it gets closer you can put a wall of lead up.”

Greenert said the entire chain of events is needed to strike a carrier at sea with the DF-21D and for defenses “you’ve got to break a couple of those chains.”

“And that’s what we look at, frankly,” Greenert said. “Many people focus on the bullet … there’s a lot of effort going on, has been, making great progress. I’m pretty comfortable where we are” in efforts to counter the missile.

On China’s submarine capabilities, Greenert said in response to questioning from Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R., N.J.): “Well, congressman, we own the undersea domain. I have a lot of empirical data that tells me exactly that. It would appear to me based on the construction program, and it kind of is logical, that China would like to modernize.”

China is replacing older submarines with newer and more modern systems but “they’re not there yet,” Greenert said. “And so our job is to remain owning the undersea domain.”

On China’s deep-water naval capabilities, the Chinese navy is “comfortable” operating within the first island chain about 100 miles from the Chinese coast.

“They have very capable individual platforms that they’re now starting to put to sea,” he said. “The ability to network, to bring them together in an effective manner is somewhat of question. But I would submit that we have an opportunity as well, to operate together and we’re working in that very direction. It doesn’t have to be adversarial.”

However, Frelinghuysen said in response: “But they are, they seem to have a pretty adversarial situation in terms of their relationships with the Philippines, with Vietnam. … Not only are we confronted, those countries are confronted as well. Now obviously the Philippines have been a strong ally of ours.”

“So, it does or doesn’t worry you about their arms buildup here?” the congressman asked.

“I would just say that I’m vigilant,” Greenert said. “I would hate to say that I’m worried, yet, because I’m not necessarily worried. Very vigilant and we need to pay attention and understand the intent. And challenge them on that intent.”

The Pentagon report made public on Monday for the first time disclosed the existence of the two new missile submarines, identified as the ballistic missile submarine dubbed the Type 096 and a new cruise-missile firing submarine called the Type 095.

Those new submarines are being developed as China is deploying new Jin-class ballistic missile submarines and Shang-class nuclear powered attack submarines.

It plans on eight Jins and six Shangs, the report said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China is using state-sponsored industrial and economic espionage to acquire technology fueling its fast-paced military modernization program and cut its reliance on foreign arms makers, the Pentagon said on Monday.

In its 83-page annual report to Congress on Chinese military developments, the U.S. Defense Department also highlighted Beijing’s efforts to develop advanced-technology stealth aircraft and to build an aircraft carrier fleet to project power further offshore.

“What concerns me is the extent to which China’s military modernization occurs in the absence of the type of openness and transparency that others are certainly asking of China,” David Helvey, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told a Pentagon briefing on the report.

Helvey welcomed Chinese moves toward greater openness but said there were still many unanswered questions and warned of the “potential implications and consequences of that lack of transparency on the security calculations of others in the region.”

The annual China report, which Congress began requesting in 2000, comes amid tensions in the region due to China’s military assertiveness and expansive claims of sovereignty over disputed islands and shoals.

Beijing’s publicly announced defense spending has grown at an inflation-adjusted pace of nearly 10 percent annually over the past decade, but Helvey acknowledged that China’s actual outlays could be much higher.

China announced a 10.7 percent increase in military spending to $114 billion in March, the Pentagon report said. It said publicly announced defense spending for 2012 was $106 billion, but actual pending for 2012 could range between $135 billion and $215 billion. U.S. defense spending is more than double that, at more than $500 billion.

The report highlighted China’s continuing efforts to gain access to sophisticated military technology to fuel its modernization program. It cited a laundry list of methods, including “state-sponsored industrial and technical espionage to increase the level of technologies and expertise available to support military research, development and acquisition.”

“China continues to engage in activities designed to support military procurement and modernization,” the report said. “These include economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, export control violations, and technology transfer.”

China also relies on acquisitions of key dual-use components, the report said, citing a network of government-affiliated companies and research groups that help it gain access to sensitive technology.

The report referred to two people from Taiwan, for example, who were charged in the United States with trying to pass sensitive defense technology to China by photographing the technology, deleting the images, then taking them to China where the images could be recovered.

(Reporting By David Alexander and Phil Stewart; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and David Brunnstrom)

The report marks the first time the Obama administration has explicitly accused the Chinese of cyber attacks. Some estimates show China is responsible for more than 90 percent of cyber espionage in the United States.

The report, released Monday, described China’s primary goal as stealing industrial technology, but said many intrusions also seemed aimed at obtaining insights into American policy makers’ thinking. It warned that the same information-gathering could easily be used for “building a picture of U.S. network defense networks, logistics, and related military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.”

It was unclear why the administration chose the Pentagon report to make assertions that it has long declined to make at the White House. A White House official declined to say at what level the report was cleared. A senior defense official said “this was a thoroughly coordinated report,” but did not elaborate.

A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman criticized the report on Tuesday.

“In terms of China’s submarines, they’re investing heavily in a robust program for undersea warfare, developing submarines that are both conventional, diesel-electric powered, air- independent propulsion and nuclear-powered attack submarines,” David Helvey, deputy assistant defense secretary for East Asia, told reporters at a briefing on release of the Pentagon’s annual assessment of Chinese military power.

China has yet to conduct an underwater test firing of its submarine-launched missiles but is deploying new missile submarines and planning advanced versions.

“We see China investing considerably in capabilities for operations in this area,” he said.

The Pentagon’s latest annual report to Congress also includes new details of China’s deployment of an aircraft carrier-killing ballistic missile, two new stealth jet fighters, and a new road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile in addition to three other new ICBMs.

The Chinese military is also developing cyber warfare capabilities that can be used in preemptive attacks, the 92-page report states.

Chinese missile forces, known as the Second Artillery Corps, are “developing and testing several new classes and variants of offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, upgrading older missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses,” the report said.

Of particular concern to the Pentagon is the deployment near Taiwan of a precision-guided DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, according to the report.

“We’re concerned about the ability of China to develop missiles that can project its military power with precision at great distances from China—obviously something that can hold at risk large surface ships, including aircraft carriers, is something that we pay attention to, but we put it in the context of a number of China’s military developments, again, that we characterize as anti-access and area denial,” Helvey said.

However, Helvey noted that no single weapons system is the problem. Instead, he said, “it’s the integration and overlapping nature of these weapons system into a regime that can potentially impede or restrict free military operations in the Western Pacific.”

“So that’s something that we monitor and are concerned about.”

“The DF-21D is based on a variant of the DF-21 medium-range ballistic missile and gives the PLA the capability to attack large ships, including aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific Ocean,” the report said, noting that its range is greater than 932 miles and that it is armed with a high-technology maneuvering warhead.

Additionally, the report confirms, China is building a new road-mobile ICBM that is likely capable of being armed with a multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV).

The Free Beacon first reported Aug. 15 that the new missile, described by defense officials as the DF-41, was flight-tested and is expected to be equipped with MIRVs.

“The Second Artillery continues to modernize its nuclear forces by enhancing its silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and adding more survivable mobile delivery systems,” the report said.

New road mobile missiles deployed in recent years include DF-31 and DF-31A mobile ICBMs and the JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile. The DF-31A has a range of about 7,000 miles.

“This administration is reluctant to just come out and say it, but this report makes clear that China is preparing for small-scale and then large-scale wars against the United States and its friends and allies,” said Richard Fisher, a China miltiary analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

“It is time to start signalling to China’s leadership the broader economic, political, as well as military costs of its current course before it believes it can confidently embark on surprise military campaigns.”

Beijing is also rapidly building new radar-evading stealth fighter-bombers known as the J-20 and J-31.

“Within two years of the January 2011 flight test of China’s first stealth fighter, which we call the J-20, China tested a second prototype, which is referred to as the J-31,” Helvey said. “The first J-31 flight test, in October 2012, highlights China’s continued ambition to produce advanced fifth-generation fighter aircraft.”

Helvey said the Pentagon does not expect either the J-20 or the J-31 “to achieve an effective operational capability before 2018.”

U.S. intelligence assessments from five years ago said China would not field a jet comparable to the U.S. Air Force F-22 stealth fighter before 2018. As a result, the Pentagon canceled production of the F-22 at 187 jets.

The first test flight of the J-20 took place two years ago and surprised the U.S. military. It was tested during the visit of then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was criticized for canceling F-22 production.

China’s surface naval forces are also expanding rapidly with deployment of several new types of warships, including the first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

Helvey said the carrier conducted its first aircraft  launch and recovery operations in November with J-15 fighters.

“We anticipate that China will spend the next three to four years on training and integration before achieving an operationally effective aircraft carrier capability,” he said. “China will likely build several indigenous aircraft carriers over the next 15 years.”

Chinese cyber and space weapons capabilities continued to be developed. Helvey said those warfare capabilities are being closely watched.

For the first time, the report linked large-scale cyber attacks and intrusions of computer networks to the Chinese government and military.

“In addition, in 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the United States government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to [People’s Republic of China] government and military organizations,” Helvey said.

Asked about Chinese economic espionage, Helvey declined to provide details but said, “We’re always mindful of the potential threats to the security of our defense technology and defense systems.”

The report also discusses China’s assertions of territorial and maritime claims that are upsetting stability in the region.

“In this report, we do highlight China’s increased assertiveness with respect to its maritime territorial claim,” Helvey said.

China is claiming most of the South China Sea as its territory and is disputing Japan’s claims to the Senkaku Islands. Both areas are said to have large deposits of undersea gas and oil to which energy-hungry states in the region seek access.

China’s government routinely protests the annual report, claiming it is part of a Pentagon campaign to hype the threat from China.

Helvey said the Chinese are aware of the report and were not consulted prior to its release on Monday.

“China’s leaders continue to see the modernization of its military as a central component of their strategy to advance China’s national development goals in the first two decades of the 21st century,” he said.

Fisher, the IASC military analyst, said the latest report is far more useful than the truncated 43-page report from 2012.

“The first ever report disclosure of development of the Type 096 SSBN raises the prospect of a new submarine launched missile that also may be multiple warhead capable,” Fisher said. “As the Administration presses for additional reductions in U.S. nuclear warhead levels and shows reluctance to fund U.S. nuclear arsenal modernization, it is doubly important that Congress be informed about the size and growth of China’s nuclear forces.”

Fisher said the report failed to address China’s transfer of strategic missile technology to North Korea, specifically the transporter-erector launchers for Pyongyang’s new KN-08 road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile disclosed for the first time during a military parade in April 2012.

“A failure to chastise and sanction China’s action will only serve to undermine confidence in American security guarantees and increase interest by our allies in their own nuclear deterrents,” he said.

Former State Department intelligence official John Tkacik said the report’s most important revelations are on the Chinese navy and especially its submarine forces.

“Last year’s report disclosed that two Jin-class ballistic missile submarines were already operational, and now the 2013 report counts three, so I take the DIA bean-counters’ word for it, China is launching one new boomer each year,” Tkacik said.

Each of the missile submarines will be equipped with 12 JL-2 missile that likely will have multiple warheads. The new submarines mean the Chinese are adding at least 180 new nuclear warheads to their arsenal, a sharp increase from the U.S. intelligence estimate of 240 warheads, Tkacik said.

In addition to the new missile submarine planned as a following on to the Jin submarines, China is planning at least one more advanced Typ 096 missile submarine a year indefiniately, Tkacik added.

“The real news is the construction of a new special-purpose class of guided-missile submarine, the Type-095 SSGN,” he said. “A Chinese SSGN [cruise missile-firing submarine] is not only a new threat for the U.S. Navy to worry about, but it will deeply unsettle China’s neighbors in East and Southeast Asia.”

The compromise of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams (NID) is raising new concerns that China is preparing to conduct a future cyber attack against the national electrical power grid, including the growing percentage of electricity produced by hydroelectric dams.

According to officials familiar with intelligence reports, the Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams was hacked by an unauthorized user believed to be from China, beginning in January and uncovered earlier this month.

The database contains sensitive information on vulnerabilities of every major dam in the United States. There are around 8,100 major dams across waterways in the United States.

Pete Pierce, a Corps of Engineers spokesman, confirmed the cyber incident but declined to provide details.

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is aware that access to the National Inventory of Dams (NID), to include sensitive fields of information not generally available to the public, was given to an unauthorized individual in January 2013 who was subsequently determined to not to have proper level of access for the information,” Pierce said in a statement.

“[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] immediately revoked this user’s access to the database upon learning that the individual was not, in fact, authorized full access to the NID,” he said.

The Corps is continuing to bolster and review security protocols governing access to the database, he added.

The Corps’ dam database portal recently added a statement that said “usernames and passwords have changed to be compliant with recent security policy changes.” The changes were initiated after the hacking incident.

The database categorizes U.S. dams by the number of people that would be killed if a dam fails. They include “significant” and “high” hazard levels.

Michelle Van Cleave, the former National Counterintelligence Executive, a senior counterintelligence policymaker, said the database compromise highlights the danger posed by hackers who are targeting critical U.S. infrastructure for future attacks.

“In the wrong hands, the Army Corps of Engineers’ database could be a cyber attack roadmap for a hostile state or terrorist group to disrupt power grids or target dams in this country,” Van Cleave said in an email.

“You may ask yourself, why would anyone want to do that? You could ask the same question about why anyone would plant IEDs at the Boston Marathon.”

Van Cleave said the intrusion appears to be part of an effort to collect “vulnerability and targeting data” for future cyber or military attacks.

“Alarm bells should be going off because we have next to no national security emergency preparedness planning in place to deal with contingencies like that,” she said.

Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, warned in a 2011 speech that cyber attacks were escalating from causing disruptions to actual destructive strikes, including cyber attacks on hydroelectric dams.

Alexander provided what he said were indirect examples of two types of anticipated cyber attacks. The first was a cyber strike that could produce a cascading power failure like the August 2003 electrical power outage in the Northeast United States caused by a tree falling on a high-voltage power line

The second involved the catastrophic destruction of a water-driven electrical generator at Russia’s Sayano-Shushenskaya dam, near the far eastern city of Cheremushki, in August 2009. One of the dam’s 10 650-megawatt hydro turbine generators, weighing more than 1,000 tons, was mistakenly started by a computer operator 500 miles away.

As a result, the generator began spinning, rose 50 feet in the air, and exploded, killing 75 people and destroying eight of the remaining nine turbines at the dam.

“That’s our concern about what’s coming in cyberspace—a destructive element,” said Alexander in the September 2011 speech on cyberwarfare. He is also the director of the National Security Agency, the electronic spying agency.

According to the Corps website, the dam inventory was created under a 1972 law and was updated in 1986 to require coordination between the Corps and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In 2002 and 2006 the law was updated further in recognition that dams are part of critical U.S. infrastructure and require protection.

Security analysts have said that critical infrastructure—electrical power grids, financial networks, transportation controls, and industrial control systems—are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attack because of computer networks used to run them.

The security lapse highlights the Obama administration’s failure to upgrade cyber security and protect infrastructure despite a recent executive order seeking to improve security.

The dam database compromise also comes amid plans by the administration to expand hydroelectric power in the Untied States, which is considered a “green” renewable energy source, by 15 percent through upgrading dams.

The Energy Department said in a recent report that upgrading dams could produce 12 gigawatts of electricity without carbon emissions, Bloomberg reported recently.

Energy officials analyzed 54,391 dams out of more than 80,000 dams that lack hydroelectric generators. Currently, some 2,500 dams produce hydroelectric power.

Increasing hydroelectric power would “help diversify our energy mix, create jobs and reduce carbon pollution nationwide,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.

President Barack Obama has set a goal of producing 80 percent of U.S. electrical power from so-called clean energy systems by 2035.

The Energy Department report said that adding generators to existing dams would be faster and less expensive than building new dams.

Hydropower made up six percent of total U.S. electricity produced in 2011. More than half of all hydroelectric power is produced in Washington, Oregon, and California.

The announcement has U.S. policymakers on edge.

Over the last several years, the U.S. government has publicly and loudly expressed its concern that too much sensitive American data passes through Chinese electronics — and that those electronics could be sieves for Beijing’s intelligence services. But the Pentagon says it has no other choice than to use the Chinese satellite. The need for bandwidth is that great, and no other satellite firm provides the continent-wide coverage that the military requires.

“That bandwidth was available only on a Chinese satellite,” deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy Doug Loverro told a House Armed Services Committee panel, in remarks first reported by InsideDefense.com. […]

Relying on Chinese companies could be a problematic solution to the bandwidth crunch, however. U.S. officials have in recent years publicly accused Chinese telecommunications firms of being, in effect, subcontractors of Beijing’s spies.

The Pentagon insists any data passed on the satellite is protected.

The Pentagon could soon lease more satellite bandwidth from the Chinese as its needs increase with every new drone and soldier.

Experts are concerned even coded, encrypted data could be used by the Chinese to gain access to important U.S. military intelligence.