Is Russia testing a new anti-satellite weapon? | Explained Premium

What would be Russia’s new anti-satellite weapon’s use? Won’t it violate the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty?

The story so far: On February 14, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Turner, called the media’s attention to “information concerning a serious national security threat” and urged President Joe Biden to declassify it so more experts could be recruited to mitigate the danger it allegedly posed. A flurry of news reports followed, quoting various sources and referring to some kind of Russian space-based weapon.

On February 15, a day after Mr. Turner’s statement, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed the claims referred to a space-based “anti-satellite weapon” of Russian provenance. Mr. Kirby also said Russia hadn’t yet deployed the ‘capability’ in question — meaning the object wasn’t yet in orbit — and that it would violate the Outer Space Treaty (OST), a multilateral agreement that prohibits the placement of weapons of mass destruction in earth’s orbit.

By this time, some news reports had also quoted anonymous sources saying that the Russian capability was either nuclear in nature or that the satellite bearing the capability would be nuclear-powered. Mr. Kirby’s statements didn’t directly address these concerns. However, since he said the capability would violate the OST, the nuclear concern isn’t out of the question yet. (The OST is against nuclear weapons in space, not nuclear-powered satellites.)

On February 16, President Biden confirmed Mr. Turner had referred “to a new Russian nuclear anti-satellite capability” and added there were no indications what Russia had decided to do with it. However, the White House has refused to declassify information about it.

Anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons are designed to debilitate and/or destroy satellites that are already in orbit and operational. ASAT weapons violate the OST through the latter’s Article VII, which holds parties to the treaty liable for damaging satellites belonging to other parties, and Article IX, which asks parties to refrain from the “harmful contamination” of space.

Russia, in the form of the erstwhile Soviet Union, has had ASAT capabilities since at least 1968. While the Cold War motivated ASAT weapon tests on either side of the Atlantic, the respective programmes refused to dwindle once relations thawed. Most of these weapons are kinetic, meaning they destroy satellites in orbit by rocketing into them or detonating an explosive near them, and blowing them to pieces. Because of the low gravity and lack of an atmosphere, the resulting debris can stay in orbit for a long time depending on their size. This result violates Article IX of the OST.

In a high-altitude test in 1962 called Starfish Prime, the U.S. detonated a thermonuclear bomb 400 km above ground. It remains the largest nuclear test conducted in space.