U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia wants to put a nuclear weapon in space. Multiple reports state that the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee warned about a serious national security threat posed by a “destabilizing foreign military capability.” A meeting planned with intelligence and defense professionals was revealed after Rep. Mike Turner’s tweet. The gathering will include the Gang of Eight and is to discuss the threat.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark R. Warner, D-Virginia, and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have been rigorously tracking this issue and are discussing an appropriate response with the administration. The news comes just five days after Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1v rocket with a classified military payload. U.S. officials have been trying to highlight increasingly aggressive Russian space activity for years now, from rogue satellites to space ramming weapons.
The use of a nuclear weapon in space would have large-scale, indiscriminate effects that would be attributable and publicly visible. A nuclear detonation in space would immediately affect satellites within range of its EMP, and it would also create a high-radiation environment that would accelerate the degradation of satellite components over the long term for unshielded satellites in the affected orbital regime.
