Russia is trying to develop a nuclear space weapon that would destroy satellites, creating a huge wave of energy when detonated, potentially crippling a vast swath of commercial and government satellites that the world below depends on to talk on cell phones, pay bills and surf the internet. according to three sources familiar with US intelligence on the weapon.
These sources gave CNN a more detailed understanding of what Russia is working on – and the threat it could pose – than the US government has previously disclosed.
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, sparked a frenzy in Washington on Wednesday when he issued a statement saying his panel “had information about a serious threat to national security.” On Friday, President Joe Biden had publicly confirmed that Turner was referring to a new Russian anti-satellite nuclear capability – but officials have steadfastly refused to discuss the matter further, citing the highly classified nature of the intelligence.
The weapon is still in development and is not yet in orbit, Biden administration officials have publicly emphasized. But if it is used, officials say, it would cross a dangerous balance point in the history of nuclear weapons and could cause extreme disruptions to everyday life in ways that are difficult to predict.
This type of new weapon – generally known to military space experts as a nuclear EMP – would create a pulse of electromagnetic energy and a flood of highly charged particles that would tear through space to disrupt other satellites flying around Earth.
Biden publicly emphasized on Friday that “there is no nuclear threat to the people of America or anywhere else in the world with what Russia is doing right now.”
“Everything they are doing and/or will do is related to satellites and space and can potentially damage those satellites,” he said.
The Department of Defense and the intelligence community have been tracking Russian efforts to develop a wide range of anti-satellite weapons, including an EMP, for years.
And there have been a number of intelligence reports in recent months relating specifically to Russia's efforts to develop nuclear-powered anti-satellite capabilities, according to a defense official.
But Russia has recently made progress in its efforts to develop a nuclear EMP – a related but much more alarming technology.
“Our general knowledge of the Russian pursuit of this type of capability goes back many, many months, if not a few years,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday. “But only in recent weeks has the intelligence community been able to assess with a greater sense of confidence exactly how Russia continues to pursue him.”
The intelligence community, Biden said, “discovered that there was a capability to launch a system into space that could, theoretically, do something harmful,” but that “hadn’t happened yet.”
“It’s not a new concept, and as a concept it goes back to the end of the Cold War,” said a US official. But, they said, “the great fear of any eventual EMP device in orbit [é] that it could render large portions of specific orbits unusable,” creating a minefield of decommissioned satellites that “would then be dangerous to any new satellites we might attempt to place to replace or repair existing satellites.”
It was not immediately clear whether the device, as designed, could impact GPS and nuclear command and control satellites, which operate in a higher orbit than the vast constellation of commercial and government satellites that whiz through low-Earth orbit. These larger satellites are designed to be impregnable to a nuclear explosion, but a former senior Pentagon space official told CNN that “they could be vulnerable” depending on how close they were to the EMP, their age, and the size of the explosion.
'Weapon of last resort'
Experts say this type of weapon could have the potential to eliminate mega constellations of small satellites, such as SpaceX's Starlink, which has been successfully used by Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.
This would almost certainly be “a weapon of last resort” for Russia, the U.S. official and other sources said, because it would cause the same damage to Russian satellites that were also in the area.
It is also unclear how developed the technology is. Russia has had a series of public debacles over its nuclear technology in recent years. In 2019, seven Russians were killed in a nuclear accident that occurred while Moscow was trying to recover a nuclear-powered cruise missile that had crashed into the White Sea during a failed test.
Still, a recent intelligence assessment on Russian progress has alarmed some lawmakers on Capitol Hill to the point where Turner issued a call for all House members to be briefed on the matter.
Shortly thereafter, he issued the vague public statement that brought the matter into public awareness.
Multiple sources familiar with the matter said the intelligence exposure was extremely damaging because the source was incredibly sensitive. According to these sources, the intelligence community is now struggling to figure out how to preserve its access.
Biden administration officials say if Russia launches a nuclear EMP, it would be the first violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in outer space.
“It would be a violation of the Outer Space Treaty, which more than 130 countries have signed on to, including Russia,” Kirby said Thursday, without providing details.
Russia has withdrawn from several arms control treaties in recent years, leaving the post-Cold War arms control architecture largely dismantled.
Source: CNN Brasil

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