Washington was 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 on a “serious threat to national security.”
ABC News reported that the threat Turner cited in his cryptic statement involved a Russian anti-satellite nuclear weapon.
White House spokesman Jake Sullivan responded by saying Turner wanted publicity because a briefing was scheduled on the issue for the next day. As several officials familiar with the matter pointed out, there was no imminent danger.
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 immediate threat to the United States.” Republican wet squib. Not quite.
Nuclear devices in space: yes and no
Placing nuclear weapons in Earth’s orbit would violate the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. So far no country has detonated a nuclear weapon in space. But nuclear powers have been testing non-nuclear anti-satellite weapons there for years.
Russia does conduct research into using directed energy weapons to destroy or disable enemy satellites. According to U.S. 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 missile launched from Earth. It followed the United States, China and India also targeting an anti-satellite missile at one of their own inoperative satellites, reducing it to thousands of pieces. This is why 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 intelligence satellite USA 245. And an American inspection satellite, USA 270, approached the Chinese satellites “Shiyan-12-01” and “Shiyan- 12-02” who immediately carried out counter-maneuvers to complicate the task of monitoring the American satellite.
These inspector satellites can be equipped with robotic arms capable of capturing enemy satellites. They can also be equipped with directed energy weapons such as lasers to fry their target’s electronic components. They can also be armed with missiles or even simply collide to destroy enemy satellites.
Anti-satellite strikes could paralyze enemy 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 making their anti-satellite preparations known. This could encourage Eon Musk to want to interrupt or limit the services of his satellite network Starlink to Ukraine which uses it for attacks against the Russians. Or even get Musk to collaborate with them. It is even said that the Russians are already successful in using the network.
Musk also refuses that Starlink be used for operations in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, such as Crimea. The use of Starlink to attack Russian targets is strongly denounced by Moscow, which has tried on several occasions to disrupt Starlink services in Ukraine.