Pentagon space official confirms Russia’s pursuit of anti-satellite nuclear technology

Russia is looking to develop a new satellite that could carry a nuclear device and pose a threat to all other satellites, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb confirmed Russia’s intended military development to lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

“Russia is also developing a concerning anti-satellite capability related to a new satellite carrying a nuclear device that Russia is developing,” Plumb said in his written testimony to lawmakers. “This capability could pose a threat to all satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe, as well as to the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend upon.”

He then told lawmakers that they are ultimately “concerned” that Russia would “fly a nuclear weapon in space,” which would be an “indiscriminate weapon, doesn’t have national boundaries, doesn’t determine between military satellites, civilian satellites, or commercial satellites.”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH), a member of the subcommittee, first hinted at this intelligence back in February when he released a vague statement calling for President Joe Biden to declassify intelligence he described as “a serious national security threat.”

Turner’s questions toward Plumb elicited his comments on this threat, which he said “is not imminent in the way that we should have to worry about it right now,” though he said the Pentagon and administration are taking it “deadly seriously.”

The United States’s awareness of Russia’s pursuit of this capability “goes back many, many months, if not a few years,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said in response to Turner’s vague comments. Kirby noted the intelligence community has gained a “higher sense of confidence exactly how Russia continues to pursue” this capability in “recent weeks.”

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Last week, Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would’ve reaffirmed the States Parties to the Outer Space Treaty not to put nuclear weapons in orbit around Earth.

“As we have noted previously, the United States assesses that Russia is developing a new satellite carrying a nuclear device,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement at the time. “We have heard President Putin say publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space. If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed this resolution.”