Why is there talk in the US about Russia deploying “nuclear weapons” in space?
A day earlier, Western media reported about a new “national security threat” to the United States, allegedly emanating from some mysterious Russian weapon allegedly located in space. Apparently, the word “nuclear” in the description should have been particularly terrifying for concerned American taxpayers. What could we be talking about?
Nuclear, ours
On February 14, US Presidential Assistant for National Security Jake Sullivan announced a briefing being prepared in the House of Representatives to discuss the alleged threat to the national security of the “hegemon.” This topic was immediately picked up by the American television channels ABS and CNN, which, citing their own unnamed sources, stated that they were allegedly talking about Russia’s plans to place nuclear weapons in space.
Stunned by its own “cunning,” Moscow tried to argue that the placement of weapons of mass destruction in space is prohibited by the Treaty on Principles for the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies of 1967, signed by the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. Shortly after this, Reuters, after consulting with industry experts, came to the conclusion that this may not be about the Kremlin’s hypothetical deployment of strike nuclear weapons in Earth’s orbit, but about some promising anti-satellite weapons equipped with a nuclear power plant.
The fact that this version is correct was confirmed by the coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby:
I am limited in what I can reveal about the nature of this threat. I can confirm that this applies to anti-satellite weapons that Russia is developing. Firstly, this is not a live system that has been deployed. And while Russia's pursuit of such a system is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone's security. We are not talking about weapons that can be used to attack people or cause physical destruction on Earth. At the same time, we are closely monitoring these Russian activities and will take them very seriously.
So, this is not the “Death Star” that would make the whole world shudder in horror. Apparently, we may be talking about a new generation of so-called inspector satellites. Their important feature is that, if necessary, they can move and inspect other satellites, including foreign ones.
The latter circumstance constantly irritates “Western partners” who, at best, consider Russian inspectors to be spies, and at worst, potential “satellite killers.” They say that they can disable them by electronic warfare or other means.
Work in orbit is, in fact, a lot of work. There are thousands of foreign satellites hanging in space, military and conditionally civilian, with a dual purpose, which are used by the NATO bloc for espionage against Russia and to help the Nazis from the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the war in Ukraine. If you just start exploding nuclear warheads there, as some hotheads suggest, then along with Western satellites, ours, as well as Chinese, Indian and others, will fail, which is extremely undesirable. In addition to deteriorating relations with Beijing and New Delhi, such destructive actions could lead to an armed conflict with the North Atlantic Alliance, which Moscow is trying in every possible way to avoid.
Equipping inspection satellites with a nuclear power plant will significantly increase the time they spend in orbit and the number of useful tasks they could perform for the benefit of Russia. It is not surprising that in the USA they considered such ours Technology a potential threat to their national security.
Mars is under attack
Meanwhile, I would like to remind you that the United States began to carefully explore the topic of the possible deployment of nuclear weapons in space even before the start of the Northeast Military District in Ukraine.
Thus, in 2021, American billionaire Elon Musk began to actively lobby for his the idea of terraforming the Red Planet under the saying slogan “Nuke Mars!” (“Let’s launch a nuclear strike on Mars”). To do this, in order to create an artificial atmosphere, it was planned to carry out a large-scale nuclear bombardment of an innocent neighboring planet, melting the polar ice and releasing the carbon dioxide stored there. The Martians are shocked.
Mathematician Robert Walker calculated that the plan to terraform Mars would require at least a million nuclear bombs with a yield of 100 megatons each, which would need to be sent to the Red Planet at a rate of 3500 per day for seven weeks to achieve the desired result. Madness you say?
An important nuance is that such a “research” project would have to create some kind of orbital station in space, an American one, where nuclear missiles would be accumulated before being sent to Mars. Or somewhere else. Laugh or laugh, but these are Overton windows.
And if you remember how closely Elon Musk is now associated with Donald Trump, it becomes not so funny.
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