// TIMED / NASA; Freepik
Russia is planning to place nuclear weapons in space, with the ability to target and destroy satellites in orbit. An attack of this type would cause chaos on a global scale, warned a senior US military commander.
In statements from , the general Stephen Whitinghead of United States Space Command, says America is “very worried” with the Kremlin’s plan to put nuclear weapons into orbit.
The plan is part of a pattern of increasing aggressiveness Russian in space since the start of the war in Ukraine, which has included “sustained interference in satellite communications and GPS systems, on a scale so vast that it is “putting civil aviation at risk“, added the four-star general.
“Russia remains a sophisticated space power and continues to invest in counterspace weapons“, highlighted Whiting last week, in an interview with the t podcast.
“They are considering put an anti-satellite nuclear weapon into orbit that would put at risk everyone’s satellites in low Earth orbitand that would be a result that we simply could not tolerate”, he highlighted.
“From the Russian point of view, they look at the USA, they look at NATO and they see there a superiority in conventional weaponry. And they believe that innovative ways of trying to weaken the US and NATO, such as neutralizing our space capabilities, help them level the battlefield“, explained the general.
“I’m not going to talk about our intelligence sources and methods, but obviously it’s a report that worries us very much. The next big war will probably be a war that starts in space,” warned Whiting.
Whiting’s intervention is the more direct public statement to date about this threat from a senior US military officer. A nuclear weapon in space would constitute a serious violation of the Outer Space Treaty 1967, of which Russia is a signatory.
Moscow’s ambitions went public for the first time two years agoafter Pentagon officials informed members of Congress about the matter behind closed doors, in February 2024.
At the time, the US believed that the Kremlin was developing an anti-satellite missile with a nuclear warhead for a surprise attack in low orbit — what analysts call “um Pearl Harbor espacial“.
Simulated explosion tests by Pentagon nuclear experts suggested that such an attack would destroy thousands of Western satellites.
An anti-satellite nuclear weapon.”would combine a physical attack that would spreaddestroying more satellites”, with the nuclear component being “used to fry its electronics”, explained in 2025.
Disable a satellite can be a devastating blow without a single shotand this can be done by attacking the satellite’s security software or disrupting its ability to send or receive signals from Earth, the AP noted.
Last month, Brigadier General Christopher Hornercommander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, said Moscow’s “alarming ambitions” could provoke a “Cuban missile crisis in space“, the magazine reported at the time.
Russia’s plans to put nuclear weapons in space could be “catastrophic”, warned Horner, who added that the ambitions attributed to Moscow “seem quite alarming“.
Satellite networks are “essential for everything from synchronizing banking transactions to navigation tasks ranging from piloting planes and ships to ensuring that a pizza delivery courier finds the right address”, notes The Week.
One nuclear detonation in low earth orbitdefined as being between 480 and 1,930 kilometers above Earth, could degrade and eventually destroy even 10,000 satellites, or 80% of the total in orbit.
In addition to the devastating blow to military intelligence and targeting capabilities, much of the world’s civilian satellite communications, including the internet and mobile phones, as well as GPS services, have also would be inoperative.
