According to Reuters, the US is concerned that what Russia is developing is a device that uses nuclear energy to attack satellites, not simply a nuclear warhead.
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| Anti-satellite weapons could disrupt military and commercial communications, undermining the military's ability to operate as well as GPS. (Source: WPR) |
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group, said Russia is developing a nuclear-powered system that can conduct electronic warfare while in orbit, while dismissing the hypothesis that Moscow is developing weapons with nuclear explosive warheads.
Such devices could include signal jammers, weapons that can blind imaging sensors, or more likely, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generators that can disable all satellite electronics in a given orbital region.
The expert noted that anti-satellite weapons could disrupt military and commercial communications, weakening the military’s ability to operate as well as the global positioning system (GPS) used by everyone “from Uber drivers to food delivery services.”
Meanwhile, a former US intelligence official also agreed that the ability to rely on satellites provides a huge advantage in a potential confrontation but is also a major weakness for Washington.
According to a 2023 report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Russia is developing a range of weapons aimed at individual satellites and may also be developing “higher-power systems to increase the threat to the architecture of all satellites.”
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