How China and Russia are becoming Iran’s eyes in the sky

 Beijing and Moscow provide satellite data to help Tehran target US bases, intelligence reports say

Ukrainian intelligence officials have accused China of providing satellite reconnaissance data to Russia to target missile strikes within Ukraine.

This includes facilities owned by foreign investors.  

While both the Russian and Chinese governments have denied these allegations, Western intelligence agencies and Ukrainian officials cite evidence of high-level cooperation in satellite imagery sharing. 

Key aspects of this reported cooperation include:

• Satellite Reconnaissance: Ukrainian officials state that Chinese Yaogan-series and other remote-sensing satellites have passed over Ukrainian territory, particularly during major Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and western regions like Lviv.

• Chinese-Built Assets: Reports indicate Russia operates Stilsat-1, a Chinese-built remote sensing satellite, to acquire high-resolution imagery of the battlefield, compensating for Russia's aging domestic space infrastructure. 
• Commercial and Private Sector Links: Investigations suggest Russian entities, including the Wagner Group, have acquired imagery from Chinese commercial firms like Chang Guang Satellite Technology. 

• Dutch intelligence has also reported that Chinese companies are selling satellite technology and imagery to Russia to bypass Western sanctions.

• Strategic Context: This intelligence sharing allows Russia to overcome deficiencies in its own satellite coverage and provides China with insights into modern warfare, while both nations coordinate on navigation systems like BeiDou and GLONASS. 

• https://kyivindependent.com/china-foreign-intelligence-service-says/

• China, Russia experiment with stealthy satellites, Space Force official says

  "Not only are [some Chinese satellites] difficult to visually acquire, that shape, they believe, would be incredibly beneficial in terms of masses of the radar cross section," Chief Master Sergeant Ron Lerch said.

• China and Russia are experimenting with stealth technologies aimed at making it harder for radar and telescopes to find their satellites, according to a senior Space Force official.

  “In years past, we’ve talked about this cat and mouse game that was happening at GEO [geosynchronous Earth orbit] — Chinese, Russian, US satellite, sort of stalking each other. This past year has really been more of a hide and seek game that we’ve seen at LEO [low Earth orbit],” Chief Master Sergeant Ron Lerch, senior enlisted advisor to the deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, said today.

  For example, he said, the three LEO-stationed Shiyan-24 satellites (Shiyan A, B and C) involved in synchronized maneuvers that Space Force vice Gen. Michael Guetlein back in March dubbed as “dogfighting in space” each had a different radar cross section — the second being smaller than the first and third smaller still.

  That suggests, Lerch told the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2025 conference, “that the Chinese are moving forward with what we’ve seen as a decades-long plan and research to potentially use some stealth applications in space.”

  Since 2012 the Chinese military also has been experimenting with shaping microsatellites to make it harder to spot them, Lerch added in response to a question from Breaking Defense on the sidelines of the conference. The PLA published a research paper in 2022 showing the results: a tiny metallic satellite, known as the “Olive-B” test article, that looks like “a sphere” that has been “sitting in an anechoic chamber” undergoing lab tests, he said.

  “Not only are they difficult to visually acquire, that shape, they believe, would be incredibly beneficial in terms of masses of the radar cross section,” Lerch told the conference.

  RELATED: US, China, Russia test new space war tactics: Sats buzzing, spoofing, spying

  Meanwhile, Russia “very recently” orbited an experimental satellite with very low visibility called Mozhayets in medium Earth orbit (MEO), Lerch said.

  “What’s fascinating about the Mozhayets is that it has a very, very low visual magnitude. Just to give you some context, the Sun is a negative 26 visual magnitude. So, a negative or a lower number, the brighter. In other words … when you go to a positive number, that means that it’s dimmer,” he said. “So GPS satellites at MEO, they’ve got about a 6.5 visual magnitude. This Mozhayets satellite the Russians put up to MEO was at about a 16 for visual magnitude, very difficult to see.”

  Lerch credited commercial firms for helping the Space Force identify and track these increasingly stealthy satellites, noting that without commercial data it would be impossible to discuss their activities in an unclassified environment.

  According to Lerch’s slides, LeoLabs provided the information about the Shiyan birds, and Slingshot about the Mozhayets. Indeed, Slingshot actually found the Mozhayets before the Space Force did — at least publicly — according to a Nov. 17 company press release.

  The Mozhayets-6, built by Russia’s Mozhaisky Military Space Academy, was launched on Sept. 13 as a rideshare on a new Russian GLONASS positioning, navigation and timing satellite, the release explained. But it spend five weeks lost in space, at least to the Space Force’s public database of on-orbit objects, Slingshot said.

• 
• A screengrab of model encounter of an American and a Chinese satellite in space. (COMSPOC)
• https://breakingdefense.com/2025/12/china-russia-experiment-with-stealthy-satellites-space-force-official-says/

• Iran’s reported use of a Chinese-built satellite, combined with alleged Russian intelligence support, signals a shift toward a new model of warfare in which commercially enabled space assets reshape how US forces are tracked and targeted.

  Reuters reported that Iran covertly obtained a Chinese-made TEE-01B spy satellite to improve its capacity to observe and potentially target US military bases throughout the Middle East. The report was based on information from the Financial Times (FT), which referenced alleged leaked Iranian military documents.

  Linking possible ties between Chinese commercial satellite companies and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) 2025 China Military Power Report states that “as of August 2024, China-based commercial satellite companies participated in business with the IRGC,” but does not go into detail about the depth of such transactions.

  Iranian commanders reportedly tasked the satellite with surveilling key US installations, using time-stamped coordinates, orbital data and imagery captured in March, including before and after drone and missile strikes on those sites.

  Targets reportedly included Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where US President Donald Trump confirmed aircraft were hit on March 14. Other targets were Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, regions near the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and Erbil airport in Iraq. Additionally, Iran obtained access to ground stations operated by Beijing-based Emposat, expanding its satellite control capabilities worldwide.

  If conclusively proven, the integration of Chinese-enabled satellite imagery and alleged Russian targeting assistance could enhance Iran’s ability to conduct more effective strikes on US and partner forces, highlighting gaps in deterrence, attribution and defense.

  Delving into the capabilities of China’s TEE-01B satellite, Earth Eye Co lists it as a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) optical remote-sensing satellite deployed at a 535–545 kilometer altitude, equipped with a panchromatic/multispectral camera delivering 0.52–0.53 meter panchromatic and 2.08–2.12 meter multispectral resolution, with a 14.8 kilometer swath width.  

• https://asiatimes.com/2026/04/chinas-satellite-boost-gives-iran-a-us-targeting-edge/