The US has stated that Russia is creating a “troubling” new anti-satellite weapon, although it has emphasized that Moscow has not yet used it.
The remarks were delivered by John Kirby, the spokesperson for the White House, the day after a senior House Republican offered cryptic concerns about a “serious national security threat”.
Moscow charged that the US was using its allegations of new Russian weaponry as a smoke screen to get Congress to approve further aid for Ukraine “by hook or by crook.”
According to Mr. Kirby, President Biden was informed of the intelligence and his government was treating the weapon’s development “very seriously”. The president has already issued an order for “direct diplomatic engagement with Russia” in response to the danger, he continued.
A flurry of rumors erupted across the nation’s capital on Wednesday after House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Turner delivered a cryptic warning about a significant national security danger.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Mr. Turner and other committee members on Thursday to continue their discussion of the issue.
“We all came away with a very strong impression that the administration is taking this very seriously and that the administration has a plan in place,” Mr Turner said after the meeting. “We look forward to supporting them as they go to implement it.”
Although space weapons seem straight out of science fiction books or movies like Superman II and GoldenEye, military analysts have long cautioned that in a world where technology is becoming more and more important, space will probably become the next front in conflict.
What is the threat’s known nature?
Aside from Mr. Kirby’s remarks, no particular information on the threat has been made public by US government representatives.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US has to give priority to the “sources and methods” its security services employed to gather intelligence about the danger.
The threat, according to the New York Times, ABC, and CBS, stems from Russia’s development of a nuclear weapon that might be used to hit US satellites in orbit.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Kirby stated that the US is taking the threat “very seriously” even though there is no proof the weapon has been used.
Russian and Chinese military capabilities in space have been progressively increasing as they try to overtake the US, US officials and aerospace experts have warned for years.
According to a study published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, last year, Russia is working on several anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, one of which is a missile that was successfully tested in November 2021 against a satellite from the former Soviet Union.
Do the general people need to worry?
Prominent legislators, such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, have stated that the public shouldn’t be alarmed.
In addition, Republican colleague Andy Ogles has criticized Mike Turner for making the threat, calling it a “reckless disregard” for the “well-being and psyche of the American people”.
Nonetheless, experts and former officials have cautioned that any danger to US satellites might have far-reaching consequences.
The US military relies significantly on satellite communications more so than any of its possible enemies worldwide for everything from GPS-guided bombs and combat communications to navigation at sea and in the air, surveillance, and missile launch detection.
The civilian world is also reliant on satellites for a wide range of daily tasks, such as weather forecasting, precision agriculture, financial transactions that rely on satellite-based time signals, and GPS-enabled ride-hailing services and food delivery.
Will the new battlefield be in space?
It makes sense that space has grown in importance as a focal point for militaries worldwide, according to Matthew Kroenig, a former defense and intelligence official who served in the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations and commissioner on the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. Kroenig made this statement to the BBC.
“Up until this point, humans have kind of been exploring space,” he stated. “But we’re now entering a phase where we’re seeing the commercialization of space, and we’re just at the beginning.”
He said that nations will concentrate on “securing” space in the upcoming phase.
“We kind of take it for granted that the seas and the skies are free and open for commercial activity,” said Kroenig. “Ideally, that’s where we would want space to be 30 years from now, traveling, doing business, and maybe even living in space,”
