Russia’s secret anti-satellite weapon could render low-Earth orbit “unusable” for satellites, according to a US Defense Department official.Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb this week offered more details about Russia’s alleged anti-satellite weapon, which US lawmakers raised alarm bells about in February. During a House subcommittee hearing, Plumb was asked to gauge the effects of Russia’s weapon, which the US claims involves detonating a nuclear weapon in space to knock out satellites. “Several analysts do believe that a detonation in space of the right magnitude and in the right location could render low-Earth orbit, for example, unusable for some period of time,” he said. Plumb indicated the weapon could do so by releasing an electromagnetic pulse, or a burst of radiation that can damage and disrupt electrical equipment. During his comments, he referenced a 1962 US military test, called Starfish Prime, which involved detonating a nuclear bomb at high altitude. The resulting explosion and EMP pulse disrupted over six orbiting satellites.Although the US needs to conduct more “modeling” to understand the effects of Russia’s anti-satellite weapon, Plumb said that low-Earth satellites “that aren’t hardened against a nuclear detonation in space —which is most satellites— could be damaged and affected.”“Some would be caught in the immediate blast, which they would not be able to survive the flux of that,” he added. Meanwhile, other satellites would be damaged over time by passing through the radiation belts formed by the nuclear blast.
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Plumb’s comments indicate Russia’s weapon could pose a dire threat to Starlink, the satellite internet system from SpaceX with almost 6,000 satellites in orbit, along with numerous other communication satellites orbiting the planet. Last week, the White House itself asserted that Russia’s space weapon involves “developing a new satellite carrying a nuclear device.” The Biden administration issued the statement after the Kremlin rejected a US-Japan proposal at the United Nations to ban nuclear weapons deployment in space. Plumb added that Russia’s anti-satellite weapon doesn’t pose an “imminent” danger at the moment. Nevertheless, he says such a threat could imperil satellites across the globe, calling it an “indiscriminate weapon.”
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