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Russia's space-based nuclear weapons threaten 'our entire modern way of life' in America and Europe - with Putin and China 'both developing weapons to attack US assets in space'
Russia's potential deployment of space-based nuclear weapons would threaten 'our entire modern way of life' in America and Europe, top US generals have warned.
'It's a completely indiscriminate weapon,' General Stephen Whiting, the commander of US Space Command, told the Aspen Security Forum, describing Moscow's possible use of such a weapon as 'an incredibly reckless decision.'
While a White House official previously stated that such a weapon wouldn't cause 'physical destruction here on Earth', experts are warning that it would still have catastrophic consequences.
'If they were to detonate a nuclear weapon in space, it is not just going to affect military targets,' Lt. General Jeffrey Kruse, the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, said.
He explained that it would immediately effect 'everything that's in line of sight at low earth orbit' - meaning phone towers, internet, GPS, banking systems, power grids, first responders could all be impacted.
US intelligence officials have been watching Moscow 's project for nearly a decade, according to Lt General Kruse
General Stephen Whiting, the commander of US Space Command, made the comments at the Aspen Security Forum
'It would affect the United States satellites, Chinese satellites, Russian satellites, European satellites, Indian satellites, Japanese satellites,' General Whiting said. 'And so, it's really holding at risk the entire modern way of life.'
The use of such a weapon by Russia would violate Russia's obligations under the Outer Space Treaty.
'It has been an expectation, for mankind, that we will not put a nuclear weapon or weapons of mass destruction in space,' the Washington Examiner reports him saying. 'And now they're doing that, potentially.'
US intelligence officials have been watching Moscow's project for nearly a decade, Kruse said, adding that they are now 'getting close' to finishing their preparations.
China has also been developing weapons to attack US assets in space, with a huge increase in anti-satellite weapons including a so-called 'kill web' which could have huge repercussions on Earth.
Such a network of systems is designed to allow Chinese forces to pinpoint and attack US positions in the Indo-Pacific, Whiting said.
In so doing, they are increasing their military capabilities on Earth, making their forces 'more precise' and 'lethal'.
Moscow and Beijing are also cooperating more than ever, Kruse said, as they aim to increase and maintain their presence in space.
While setting off a nuclear bomb may conjure the image of mass casualty events as seen historically, their potential use in space is likely to be designed to create of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
When a nuclear bomb goes off, whether on land or in space, it creates an EMP. This burst of electromagnetic energy can disable or destroy electronic equipment - including satellites.
While Russia already has multiple space-based tools in its arsenal, nukes are believed to be one of its emerging threat-capabilities
The US does not currently have defenses against such a threat, and if satellite-based communications were destroyed, getting them back online would require maneuvering remaining satellites into place and launching new ones on rockets - both of which days or weeks.
While Russia already has multiple space-based tools in its arsenal, nukes are believed to be one of its emerging threat-capabilities.
The move to put a nuclear device in space would also go against the Outer Space Treaty, a 1967 agreement the then-USSR was party to. One provision of the treaty is a ban on orbiting nuclear weapons.
Russia and China threatening the US and its allies in space is nothing new.
In 2021, Russia demonstrated its capability to shoot down satellites with missiles launched from Earth, destroying one of its own decommissioned satellites.
And in 2020 Russia fired a projectile from a satellite up into outer space - though Russian officials maintained the projectile was not a weapon.
China, India, and the US have also all tested ASAT missiles on their own decommissioned satellites.