Panic in Washington over possible Russian anti-Satellite weapon...

 

A satellite. Politco/AFP/Getty.

Washington is in a panic over intelligence that suggests Russia has developed a nuclear anti-satellite weapon. Politco. Such a weapon would not be able to be countered by US and NATO. House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Turner called on the Biden Administration to declassify the intelligence about the weapon. It is unclear why he decided to bring up this information now as it has been available for more than a week. It is possible that it was a ploy to secure new funding for the war in Ukraine. 

My Comment:

This is a pretty transparent effort to try and drum up support for the war in Ukraine. The whole "justification" of the war is the idea that it somehow weakens Russia to drag them further into a quagmire in Ukraine. 

The problem is that people aren't buying it anymore. Russia appears to be stronger than ever and their military is advancing in leaps and bounds. Sending more money to Ukraine won't actually help them win the war. All it will do is result in more dead Ukrainians and Russians. With a large number of Republican lawmakers agreeing with that the powers that be needed a new argument. 

Is Russia developing some kind of nuclear anti-satellite weapon? It's possible. Russia has been able to develop new weapons at a fairly impressive pace. They now have an advantage in hypersonic missiles and air defenses. And they certainly have both nuclear weapons and anti-satellite weapons, it would not be hard for them to combine them. 

Does that mean that they did? I have no idea. I absolutely don't trust our intelligence agencies to tell the truth about anything and the timing of this is very obvious since it's pretty clear that the Ukraine aid bill is dead on arrival. It really does seem like they just want to drum up anti-Russian sentiment. 

I also wonder why they would want to develop a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in the first place? They already have anti-satellite weapons and have had them since the 1970's. Why would they not just use those in the event of World War III instead of nuclear weapons that could result in mutually assured destruction. 

The only thing I can think of is that anti-satellite weapons might not be as effective against small satellites like the one Elon Musk has deployed for Starlink. Given those are the size of a table it might be too difficult to target with conventional weapons. In that case an EMP from a nuclear weapon might be the only option. But that is pure speculation on my part. 

Regardless, if a major war erupts our satellites are done regardless. Both Russia and China have anti-satellite conventional weapons and those will be used given how dependent US forces are on our satellite network. And the destruction of those satellites would likely cause Kessler syndrome, which could lock us out of space for generations.