Russia is considering sending a nuclear weapon into space in what could be a “grave” threat to Western technology and security, US officials have been told.
President Joe Biden was urged to declassify details of a “serious national security threat” in a public statement yesterday by US House intelligence committee chief Mike Turner.
In the statement, Turner said: “I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat.”
Turner did not share specific details of the “grave” threat, but sources told ABC News it involved Russia’s aim to put nuclear weapons in orbit – which they described as “very concerning and very sensitive”.
Putin’s plan is allegedly to use nuclear weapons against satellites
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He made the information available in a secure location under the Capitol for members of the House to view, with officials arriving over the course of the afternoon to investigate the report.
Despite the dire warnings, several members of Congress counselled calm, recognising the possibility for mass panic if details were formally made public.
Putin’s plan is allegedly to use nuclear weapons against satellites, rather than to drop them on ground targets – though this would still be a first; no anti-satellite weapons have ever been used in warfare.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said: “We are going to work together to address this matter, as we do all sensitive matters that are classified… But we just want to assure everyone steady hands are at the wheel… We’re working on it.”
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Only the US has ever successfully shot down a satellite in a test in 1985
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Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is set to brief the ‘Gang of Eight’, a bipartisan group of senior Congress officials party to classified intelligence information, later today alongside other intelligence and defence professionals.
Sullivan said it was “impossible to answer” questions of whether the public should worry “with a straight yes”.
He said: “Americans understand that there are a range of threats and challenges in the world that we’re dealing with every single day.
“I am confident that President Biden, in the decisions that he has taken, is going to ensure the security of the American people going forward.”
“I’ll just say that I personally reached out to the Gang of Eight. It is highly unusual, in fact, for the national security adviser to do that.”
“If Russia has, in fact, deployed, nuclear weapons in orbit, that would be a deliberate and direct violation of the 1967 outer space treaty by Moscow,” the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Dr Malcolm Davis told the Telegraph.
Dr Davis said: “The outer space treaty is a cornerstone of space stability, and this would be a grave setback for international arms control.”
Only the US has ever successfully shot down a satellite – a test, in 1985 – but any extra-terrestrial Russian aggression would seriously threaten Nato infrastructure.
The weapon could also be an ‘electronic warfare satellite’ powered by a nuclear reactor, rather than a straight nuclear warhead, suggested Nick Schifrin to PBS’ NewsHour.
Former US Army general Barry McCaffrey said Nato’s GPS and communications hardware was “all fundamentally space based”, and any attack on US satellites would be “an act of war”.