DIA: China has tripled its reconnaissance and surveillance satellites since 2018, with over 510 in orbit, aimed at US forces in the Indo-Pacific

China has tripled since 2018 its fleet of satellites for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and continues to build the ability to find, track and target forces of the United States and its allies on land and at sea. This is the main conclusion of the new report “Challenges to Security in Space 2026” by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which was released on Monday, October 26. The report is available as a PDF on the DIA website.

The report counts more than 510 Chinese ISR satellites in orbit in July 2026. The figure includes both the Chinese state’s satellites and those of Chinese commercial companies. The DIA acknowledges that it counts them together and writes: “Although many of these ISR satellites are nominally associated with commercial and civil missions, the dual-use nature of their capabilities and possibly Chinese military-civil fusion policies mean the data or imagery they collect can be used by the PLA.” Chinese companies, it adds, supply imagery even to state entities that Western providers have excluded because they support weapons proliferation.

“China has a robust space-based ISR capability, designed to enhance global situational awareness and enable long-range strikes,” the DIA writes. The fleet includes electro-optical satellites, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites and satellites for electronic and signals intelligence. With this network the Chinese military can monitor and target American and allied forces around the world, mainly in the Indo-Pacific: on the Korean Peninsula, around Taiwan, in the Philippines, in the Indian Ocean and in the South China Sea. The expansion continues mainly through the growing constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit.

The report is the third in the series, with a first edition in 2019 and an assessment running to July 2026, and examines the space strategies and capabilities of China, Russia and the emerging space powers Iran and North Korea. For China it estimates that by the end of the decade it could acquire directed-energy space weapons able to threaten satellites in higher orbits. For Russia it records electronic warfare, anti-satellite systems, concern about a possible nuclear-armed anti-satellite weapon and jamming of commercial satellite services that support Ukraine. It also notes that China supports the Russian space programme with components and technology.

Among the developments that will make things harder for the US in the coming years the DIA lists reusable systems, such as rockets and spaceplanes, the growing use of artificial intelligence, orbital congestion, the risk of collision with inactive craft unable to manoeuvre, and interest in satellites in very low orbit. The report also publishes an image of China’s reusable spaceplane in orbit, with its service module attached, taken by a Maxar satellite in 2024. The craft was launched on its fourth mission in February 2026.

“The growth of Chinese, Russian, Iranian and North Korean counterspace capabilities, the rapid increase in the number of objects in space and the proliferation of needs for space-based services will complicate space operations over the next decade,” the DIA concludes in its press release.

Not everyone agrees with the reading of the numbers. Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute told Breaking Defense that China’s operational surveillance and weather satellites rose from 141 in 2018 to 541 in late October 2026, but that the pace has now slowed, while the US has 643, up from 298 in 2018, and is growing its fleet faster. The space competition is also a concern for the US Space Force, and Japan’s Defense White Paper called China “the greatest strategic challenge”.