Washington has been in turmoil this week over an alleged Russian space nuclear weapon. Republican Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, called on the White House to declassify intelligence information about a “serious threat to national security.”
ABC News reported that the threat Turner cited in his cryptic statement was a Russian anti-satellite nuclear weapon.
White House spokesman Jake Sullivan responded that Turner wanted publicity because a briefing on the issue was scheduled for the next day. There is no immediate danger, several officials familiar with the matter stressed.
Asked for comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the affair a “malicious fabrication.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “This is not an active capability and does not pose an imminent threat to the United States.” Republican Wetfirer. Not quite.
Nuclear devices in space: yes and no
Placing nuclear weapons in Earth orbit would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. To date, no country has detonated a nuclear weapon in space. But nuclear powers have been testing non-nuclear anti-satellite weapons there for years.
Russia is exploring the use of directed energy weapons to destroy or disable enemy satellites. According to US military intelligence, the spacecraft Russia is currently developing is not nuclear-armed, but could be nuclear-powered.
In 2021, Russia destroyed one of its old Soviet-era satellites with a rocket fired from Earth. It followed that the United States, China and India also aimed an anti-satellite missile at one of their own dysfunctional satellites, dismantling it into thousands of pieces. Because of this, space is polluted by thousands of metallic debris orbiting the Earth.
In 2020, the Russian spacecraft Kosmos-2542 made several approaches to the American optical reconnaissance satellite USA 245. And an American inspection satellite, USA 270, approached the Chinese satellites “Shiyan-12-01” and “Shiyan-12-02”. immediately carried out countermaneuvers to complicate the task of monitoring the American satellite.
These inspection satellites can be equipped with robotic arms that can capture enemy satellites. They can also be equipped with directed energy weapons such as lasers to destroy their target's electronic components. They can also be armed with missiles or simply collide to destroy enemy satellites.
Anti-satellite attacks could cripple opposing countries' military and civilian communications, including their global positioning systems (GPS).
The Russians, Musk and Starlink?
We might think that the Russians have an interest in publicizing their anti-satellite preparations. This could encourage Eon Musk to want to interrupt or limit the services of its Starlink satellite network to Ukraine, which it uses to launch attacks against the Russians. Or even get Musk to work with them. It is even said that the Russians are already successfully using the network.
Musk also refuses to use Starlink for operations in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories such as Crimea. The use of Starlink to attack Russian targets has been strongly condemned by Moscow, which has repeatedly attempted to disrupt Starlink services in Ukraine.