Can China’s new satellite coordination standards boost PLA targeting and resilience?

Chinese researchers are drafting standards for autonomous satellite coordination and data sharing in a move analysts say could speed up military targeting and make People’s Liberation Army satellite networks more resilient.

An expert panel convened by the Chinese Institute of Command and Control (CICC) in Beijing on September 21 approved work on 10 proposed voluntary standards, clearing the way for draft texts to be released for consultation.

In an account of the meeting published last Thursday, the CICC said the standards were intended to support China’s civilian and commercial low Earth orbit satellites.

The 10 proposed standards cover areas ranging from overall system design and the description of mission scenarios to distributed data services, satellite and mission data, coordination at constellation and smaller satellite-cluster levels, and the design of autonomous controllers.

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CICC said the standards sought to help different types of satellites work together more effectively in large, complex constellations. The institute’s announcement summarised the draft standards but did not include their full texts.

In practice, common formats could allow satellites run by different organisations to describe tasks, report their status and capabilities, and exchange mission data consistently.

If one satellite detected something of interest, for example, it could pass relevant task information to another with a different sensor or a better view of the area.

According to Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, what was outlined in CICC’s announcement was significant.

“Coordination of these types of satellites is not a trivial task,” Falco said.

Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting, contrasted China’s approach to building large satellite constellations with SpaceX’s Starlink.

“Unlike Starlink, which is vertically integrated and manufactures all satellites in-house, China’s large constellations are much more dispersed,” he said.

“That being the case, it would seem very important to create standards so that the satellites can eventually be interoperable.”

Curcio cautioned that any benefits would take time because the standards would have to be incorporated into the designs before the satellites were built and launched.

CICC’s standards effort also involved military and defence-linked institutions.

The expert panel included PLA Unit 61646, which is active in satellite and remote-sensing information processing, while one of the institutions leading the drafting work was the China Academy of Space Technology’s 513 Institute, which works on electronics for space and defence applications.

Timothy R. Heath, founder of Perceptum, a defence research and consultancy firm focused on China and security affairs, said the PLA’s involvement reflected China’s broader push towards dual-use capabilities.

According to the Pentagon’s 2025 annual report on China’s military, many Chinese commercial companies were part of Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy to develop dual-use technologies in the commercial sector for eventual integration into the military.

For the PLA, such capabilities could shorten the chain between collecting information on a potential target and getting usable data to military operators, Heath said.

“Satellite networks that operate with greater autonomy will do more tasks in space,” he added.

“For example, satellites in a network could share data with each other, drawing from different types of sensors. Using AI, the satellites could quickly identify potential targets and then send that information to human operators.”

In principle, a network able to share data and coordinate tasks in this way could also redistribute work. If one satellite were unavailable or poorly positioned, another could potentially take over part of the job.

Falco said the architecture described by CICC also pointed to a shift towards processing data and making decisions where the information is collected, rather than routinely sending it back to the ground first.

Heath likewise linked the technology to a broader shift in PLA warfare concepts.

“The incorporation of AI and greater autonomy definitely reflects the PLA’s push towards a vision of building an ‘intelligentised’ force and networked warfare,” he said.

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The Pentagon report said Beijing believed the next revolution in military affairs would come with a transition to “intelligentised” warfare and the integration of artificial intelligence, big data, advanced computing and other technologies into the joint force.

It also said the PLA was investing in and fielding automated detection and tracking from low-Earth-orbit satellites – capabilities it said had increased its ability to monitor, track and target US and allied forces.

Falco said the technology could also improve resilience as satellites could continue operating when communications with ground stations were denied, reducing the risk that disruption of those links would jeopardise a mission.

Namrata Goswami, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s school of advanced international studies, highlighted the potential for resilience at the constellation level.

“Jamming or attacking one part of the network is not fatal if the remaining network can autonomously redistribute functions,” Goswami said.

Despite those potential military applications, Heath cautioned against interpreting the standards primarily as a military project.

“The main driver is civilian in nature,” he said. “The military aspect is just one consideration but not the main driver.”

Meanwhile, the US military is pursuing related capabilities, although the programmes are not direct equivalents to the CICC standards.

The US Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture uses common networking and optical-communications standards to allow satellites supplied by multiple vendors to operate as part of the same network.

In addition, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency or Darpa is developing its Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node programme, or Space-BACN, to connect otherwise incompatible satellite constellations using different optical-link standards and coordinate communications between them.