Russia’s space-based nuclear weapon threatens ‘entire modern way of life’

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Russia’s development of a space-based nuclear weapons system poses a threat to “the entire modern way of life,” according to a top U.S. general.

“It’s a completely indiscriminate weapon,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, the commander of U.S. Space Command, told the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. “It would affect the United States satellites, Chinese satellites, Russian satellites, European satellites, Indian satellites, Japanese satellites. And so, it’s really holding at risk the entire modern way of life. And it’s just an incredibly reckless decision.”

The anxiety over a potential Russian deployment of a nuclear weapon into space has percolated in public discussions of nuclear arms and national security since February, when the Biden administration briefed Congress on the emerging Russian weapon. And while a White House official at the time said that such a weapon could not “cause physical destruction here on Earth,” another senior officer emphasized the far-reaching ramifications of such a weapon.

“If they were to detonate a nuclear weapon in space, it is not just going to affect military targets,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said during an appearance alongside Whiting. “The issue is, everything that’s in line of sight at low earth orbit is going to have immediate effects.”

The deployment of the weapon would be a violation of Russia’s obligations under the Outer Space Treaty, as Whiting noted.

“It has been an expectation, for mankind, that we will not put a nuclear weapon or weapons of mass destruction in space,” he said. “And now they’re doing that, potentially.”

Kruse noted that U.S. intelligence officials have been tracking the project “for almost a decade,” saying Russia is “getting close” to finishing their preparations. The system is just one example of how Russia — and, perhaps even more significantly, China — are racing to expand their ability to attack U.S. assets in space.

“China aims to displace the United States as the global leader in space … and it counts on what they perceive as a U.S. over-reliance on space, and it intends to hold that capability at risk,” he said. “Both Russia and China view the use of space early on, even ahead of conflict, as important capabilities to deter or to compel behaviors.”

China showcased the ability to shoot down a satellite with a ground-based missile in 2007, when it destroyed one of its own weather satellites, a demonstration that created a “debris cloud” that raised the risk of an accident in orbit. Almost two decades later, Chinese researchers and officials have orchestrated a “tremendous increase” in anti-satellite weapons, as territorial disputes in the Indo-Pacific raise the risk of a conflict that could lead to war between the United States and China.

“Where we see that taking place is just a tremendous increase in directed energy weapons, in electronic warfare, in anti-satellite capabilities,” Kruse said. “Their on-orbit technology demonstrators are demonstrating some capability and intent that really does have military applications.”

Those developments are just one part, however, of a “kill web,” as Whiting put it — an interlocking network of systems designed to enable Chinese forces to attack American positions “throughout the Indo-Pacific” region.

“China is building a kill web, if you will, in space — tailor-built to find, fix, track, target, and help provide engagement vectors for over-the-horizon fires against U.S. and allied forces throughout the Indo-Pacific,” Whiting said. “And so, we have a role there to help defend those U.S. forces from China’s more precise, more lethal, and more far-ranging terrestrial army, navy, and air force.”

In Kruse’s telling, the space-based nuclear weapon is an example of Russia looking for “asymmetric” weapons to offset their relative weaknesses in conventional terms. “

“I don’t want to make anyone [seem] 10 feet tall,” he said. “Russia, you’re all aware, is probably having troubles with launch capabilities. They have trouble maintaining health of constellations in ways that we have not seen in the past … but they have reached out to China. … We see some cooperation that we have not seen in the past.”