Updated 01.12 | Published 00.30
unsaveSave
The weapon is described as “Russia’s last resort”.
A nuclear weapon in space that destroys everything in its path with an electromagnetic pulse.
Even military satellites are seen as “vulnerable” to such an explosion, according to CNN.
Attention to the Russian space weapon, which the Pentagon says is under development, began earlier this week when Republican Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, warned of a “serious national security threat.”
The threat was quickly linked to Russia.
“Disturbing and sensitive”
A source privy to the intelligence told CNN that the threat concerns a “very disturbing and destabilizing” Russian capability. The intelligence surrounding the threat is classified as “very sensitive”.
The weapons will not be aimed at Earth but at other satellites, sources told ABC News.
– It is very worrying and sensitive, said a source.
Tonight CNN published new information around the identified threat.
It is stated, with reference to three sources with access to US intelligence, that Russia is trying to develop a nuclear weapon that can knock out satellites using an electromagnetic pulse, a so-called EMP weapon.
Creates a minefield
“This new weapon would create an electromagnetic pulse and induce high electrical voltages that would travel through space and disrupt satellites around Earth,” writes CNN.
– The big fear with a possible EMP weapon in orbit is that it could render large parts of some orbits unusable by creating a minefield of destroyed satellites. This would be a danger to new satellites that we would try to launch to replace or repair the existing satellites, a source told CNN.
expand-left
full screen A Soyuz-2.1B rocket launches from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk, Russia, about 80 miles north of Moscow. The picture is from November 2022, but this week another Soyuz rocket was launched from the same location. Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense Press Service Via AP/TT
According to CNN, primary targets for such a weapon would be satellites that we depend on for mobile and data traffic. A detonation could shut down the internet and destroy all avenues of communication.
Military satellites ‘vulnerable’
It is stated that it is unclear, however, whether such a weapon would have the capacity to knock out GPS and surveillance satellites operating higher up in space.
A former senior Pentagon official told CNN that even such satellites could be “vulnerable” depending on how close to the weapon they would be in the event of detonation, how old the satellites are and how large the detonation could be.
Several sources told CNN that it is seen as “a last resort for Russia” to use such a powerful weapon – as such an electromagnetic nuclear explosion would also knock out Russian satellites in the same way.
expand-left
full screen The Russian president visited the Uralvagonzavod weapons factory in Nizhny Tagil in Russia this week. Photo: Ramil Sitdikov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo Via AP/TT
Biden: No threat to people
US President Joe Biden spoke about the Russian space project on Friday evening.
– There is no nuclear threat to American citizens or people elsewhere in the world in connection with what Russia is doing, Biden said.
– What they are doing and or will do is about satellites and space and possibly being able to destroy these satellites.
expand-left
full screen
chevron-rightnext
Image from launch during a Russian exercise last October, according to the Kremlin.
1 / 2 Photo: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP/TT
FACT Outer Space Treaty
1963 the United States, Great Britain and the former Soviet Union signed an agreement banning nuclear weapons tests in space, atmosphere and oceans, as well as three UN resolutions on outer space.
1967 signed 90 parties, among them Sweden, what can be seen as a continuation of it: the Outer Space Treaty.
It is an international treaty that regulates legal issues about space and celestial bodies and lays down a series of space law principles.
arrow Space is for everyone.
arrow No state may lay claim to celestial bodies – or prevent others from exploring them.
arrow Celestial bodies may only be used for peaceful purposes.
arrow It is not permitted to place nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in orbit around the Earth.
arrow All stations and all spacecraft on the moon and other celestial bodies shall be open to representatives of all states (which have signed the treaty).
arrow The states (as signatories) are responsible for any damages incurred as a result of space activities (both governmental and private).
However, the principles do not prevent the placement of conventional weapons in Earth orbit. Today there are several hundred satellites used for military purposes.
The military threat lies primarily in the fact that other countries can destroy another country’s space system and thus satellites that are necessary for communication, tracking and surveillance.
1968 the Rescue Agreement was also signed, on the rescue and return of astronauts and on the return of objects sent into outer space.
Read more