Russia’s brazen plan to place a nuclear weapon in space could threaten satellites that enable military and civilian communications for the United States and other Western allies.
It is unclear what exactly Moscow plans to put into space, but according to early reports from anonymous US government sources, a space nuclear bomb would be used to attack satellites in orbit rather than attacking targets on the ground.
While nuclear bombs are generally thought of as weapons intended to cause large numbers of casualties and mass destruction of property, in space the strategy appears to be the creation of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
When a nuclear bomb explodes, whether on the ground or in space, it creates an EMP. This burst of electromagnetic energy can disable or destroy electronic equipment, including satellites.
If a Russian weapon in orbit were to attack American satellites, it could effectively paralyze the United States, causing nationwide blackouts and communications outages.
Cell phone towers, Internet, GPS, banking systems, power grids, first responders, and military operations could be affected.
Russia already has several space-based military assets. These include co-orbital anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, ASAT direct ascent missiles and Starlink communication satellites that it is contracting for its war against Ukraine.
The United States currently has no defenses against such a threat, and if satellite-based communications were destroyed, bringing them back online would require maneuvering the remaining satellites into place and launching new ones on rockets, in both cases within days or weeks. .
The warning signs of such an attack are already there. In 2021, Russia demonstrated its ability to shoot down satellites with Earth-launched missiles, destroying one of its own decommissioned satellites.
And in 2020, Russia fired a projectile from a satellite into outer space, although Russian officials maintained that the projectile was not a weapon.
According to early reports from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner of Ohio, the new threat appears likely to be a satellite launched into space that could maneuver into place and target other satellites.
Global communications systems, such as mobile phones, the Internet we use every day, and military communications, depend on a series of satellites in orbit around the Earth, and destroying a rival nation’s satellites could disrupt defense capabilities and emergency response from a foreign power.
If satellites were to go out of service, cell phone data could be temporarily interrupted, as could home Internet for people in rural areas.
Communication between banks and other businesses around the world would be hampered, effectively disabling global business routines.
These effects would likely persist for days or weeks until new satellites could be launched to replace the destroyed ones, or until existing satellites could move into Earth’s orbit to fill the gaps.
In statements pressing the Biden administration to declassify intelligence on the anti-satellite weapon, Turner and other officials have noted that the threat is not urgent, but that there may be limited time to prevent Russia from deploying it.
Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri said Wednesday that after reviewing intelligence, officials are overreacting and he is more fear of punishment for revealing classified material than what the report contains.
The Kremlin said today that the essence of the rumor was false, a “malicious fabrication” by lawmakers and the White House aimed at raising more money to counter Russia, Reuters reported.
Russia has already violated parts of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty unrelated to nuclear weapons, including when it shot down its own 1980s-era Cosmos 1408 satellite in 2021. The move released at least 1,500 pieces of space junk (followed above by a private company numerical)
However, Russia’s space arsenal does not consist exclusively of weapons. It also includes private communication networks.
Putin has reportedly been contracting SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to allow his invading troops to communicate with each other in the country’s war against Ukraine.
According to early reports, Russia appears to have plans to deploy a co-orbital anti-satellite weapon (ASAT), a satellite that could maneuver close to its targets before deploying a projectile or simply detonating on site.
The decision to place a nuclear device in space would also go against the Outer Space Treaty, a 1967 agreement to which the then USSR was a party. One provision of the treaty is a ban on nuclear weapons in orbit.
In recent years, Russia may have violated another part of this treaty when it shot down its own 1980s-era Cosmos 1408 satellite in 2021.
This incident created a cloud of dangerous debris (at least 1,500 pieces) that narrowly missed a Chinese satellite and forced astronauts aboard the International Space Station to shelter in place.
Russia used a direct ascent anti-satellite missile (DA-ASAT) in that incident. These weapons are launched from launch pads on Earth, directly to a satellite.
That act was explicitly prohibited in the treaty, which stipulates that “states shall prevent harmful pollution of space and celestial bodies.”
But Russia is not the only one violating that provision: China, India and the United States have also tested ASAT missiles on their own decommissioned satellites.
Both the United States and the then-Soviet Union have skirted the limits of this language in the ’67 Outer Space Treaty since the last decade of the Cold War.
Following the 1978 discovery of an anti-satellite capability by the USSR, the US Air Force contracted the development of an air-launched ASAT that would be fired from an F-15 Eagle fighter jet.
Nicknamed ASM-135, this Air Force ASAT never saw active use, instead becoming a historical artifact on display in the National Air and Space Museum.
But the ASAT projects of the President Carter era heralded the “Star Wars” initiatives of the Reagan administration, which pushed for a “Strategic Defense Initiative” (SDI) that included plans for both space lasers and exotic projectiles.
An SDI proposal for a “hypervelocity” electromagnetic railgun, which the Pentagon earmarked millions of dollars to investigate and paid artists to conceptualize, would have used ‘Lorenz forces’ to launch a kinetic weapon against nuclear missiles, in mid-flight.
While it is unclear whether a U.S.-made device ever made it into orbit, the U.S. Navy has spent more than 500 million dollars in recent years for defense contractor General Atomics to produce a pilot project developing similar weaponry.
‘The Electromagnetic Railgun (EMRG)’ as a Navy press release As he said in 2020, it “could substantially improve the ability of Navy surface ships to defend against surface vessels.”
Above, an artist’s concept made during the Reagan presidency of an American space electromagnetic railgun proposed as part of the ‘Strategic Defense Initiative’ or ‘Star Wars’. The planned device was intended to intercept and destroy nuclear-armed re-entry vehicles.
But perhaps the signatory provision of the 1967 treaty established a prohibition on launching “nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction” into orbit or on “celestial bodies” or stationing them “in outer space in any other manner.”
While Russia already has multiple space tools in its military arsenal, Wednesday’s cryptic reports from the Senate Intel Committee and other anonymous sources specifically alluded to space nuclear weapons as one of its emerging threat capabilities.
Citing a current and former US official, the New York Times reported that Russia has been quietly working on a space nuclear weapon designed to target its rivals’ satellite networks.
An ABC News report added that vaguely described intelligence that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Taylor, has asked the White House to declassify refers specifically to such orbital nuclear capabilities.
But both current and former officials, according to ReutersThey have also warned that this alleged Russian nuclear weapon is not yet in orbit.